Systems and methods for automated emergency response

ABSTRACT

Described herein are systems, devices, methods, and media for facilitating emergency communications by an emergency management system. In one embodiment, a method for facilitating emergency communications comprises: identifying a user potentially affected by an emergency; providing an emergency response message to a communication device associated with the user; receiving confirmation of the emergency; in response to receiving confirmation of the emergency, initiating an autonomous communication session with the user through the communication device; extracting emergency information from the autonomous communication session; and providing the emergency information to an emergency service provider (ESP).

CROSS-REFERENCE

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/809,379 filed Feb. 22, 2019, which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A person in an emergency situation may request help using a mobilecommunication device such as a cell phone to dial a designated emergencynumber like 9-1-1 or a direct access phone number for the localemergency service provider (e.g., a public safety answering point(PSAP), or an emergency dispatch center). This call is assigned to oneor more first responders by the emergency service provider. However,these communications are typically limited to audio calls with narrowfunctionality since most emergency service providers that receiveemergency calls currently lack the capacity for more sophisticatedcommunications. Additionally, in some instances (e.g., during a massemergency, such as a hurricane or mass shooting) call-takers atemergency service providers may be fully occupied or otherwise unable torespond to a 9-1-1 call, which can delay the arrival of emergencyassistance to those in need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed herein are systems, servers, devices, methods, and media formanaging emergency communications such as multimedia datacommunications. The present disclosure takes advantage of recenttechnological advancements that have led to the dramatic rise in thenumber and popularity of sophisticated electronic devices in home,office, mobile, and outdoor environments—commonly referred to theInternet of Things (IoT)—that are capable of sensing and recordinginformation from their environments and communicating over a network. Insome embodiments, IoT devices, when in the vicinity of an emergency, areleveraged to provide valuable information, or insight, into theemergency. This information can then be used to automate emergencyresponse services, such as when all of the call-takers at a publicsafety answering point (PSAP) are occupied and cannot immediatelyrespond to additional calls, or in environments without PSAPs.

Emergency response services such as PSAPs are often limited in thenumber of available personnel who can field emergency communications.Such limitations can cause a bottleneck in the ability to effectivelyidentify and respond to emergency situations. Dispatchers may be forcedto triage or even ignore emergency alerts, resulting in the delay ofpotentially life-saving assistance. Moreover, dispatchers often commencecommunications regarding an emergency situation with little or noinformation. Accordingly, the autonomous communication sessions providedherein solve these technical problems by verifying emergencies and/orgathering information without requiring human assistance. Theseautonomous communication sessions can also triage an emergency, forexample, by verifying the type of emergency, severity or scope of theemergency (e.g., the number of people involved in an accident),injuries, location, and other relevant information. In the scenario thata PSAP is overwhelmed with emergency communications or alerts, theinformation gathered by the autonomous communication session can be usedto triage the alerts so as to place them in a queue to be addressed by ahuman operator.

One advantage provided by the systems, servers, devices, methods, andmedia of the instant application is the ability to host autonomouscommunication sessions (e.g., a chat-bot) with a person in need ofemergency assistance. In some embodiments, when a person generates anemergency alert using a communication device (such as by dialing 9-1-1on a mobile phone in the United States), an emergency management system(EMS) initiates an autonomous communication session with the user of thecommunication device through which the user can submit criticalinformation regarding their emergency. The emergency information can begathered through the autonomous communication session without requiringa human call-taker. The EMS can facilitate the collection and transferof emergency information gathered through an autonomous communicationsession to emergency service providers (ESPs) such as emergency dispatchcenters (EDCs) and/or public safety answering points (PSAPs). Byautonomously gathering and distributing emergency information while ESPsare preoccupied or absent, the EMS can ensure and expedite emergencyassistance.

Another advantage provided by the systems, servers, devices, methods,and media of the instant application is an emergency assistantapplication capable of providing basic emergency assistance to those inneed before first responders are dispatched and arrive at the scene ofan emergency. In some embodiments, when a person generates an emergencyalert (such as by dialing 9-1-1 on a mobile phone in the United States)using a smartphone or other IoT device, an emergency management system(EMS) presents an emergency assistant application, gathers emergencydata, and delivers a safety recommendation to the person in need throughthe device. For example, in some embodiments, after determining that aperson is bleeding profusely from the arm, the EMS instructs (forinstance, through the emergency assistant application) the personthrough the proper bandaging techniques. In some embodiments, emergencyassistance is provided through the autonomous communication session. Forexample, the gathering of emergency data and/or delivery of safetyrecommendations may be at least partially automated through an exchangeof messages or other communications via a chat-bot. In some embodiments,the EMS gathers emergency data through an autonomous communicationsession facilitated by the emergency assistant application. In someembodiments, the EMS gathers emergency data through sensors housedwithin the device.

Another advantage provided by the systems, servers, devices, methods,and media of the instant application is the ability to automaticallycoordinate ESPs for responding to emergencies. Different emergenciesrequire different forms of emergency response, often times based on thenature of the emergency (e.g., fire or medical) and the severity of theemergency. In some embodiments, when a person generates an emergencyalert for an emergency (such as by dialing 9-1-1 on a mobile phone inthe United States) using a smartphone or other IoT device, an emergencymanagement system (EMS) gathers emergency data, determines a nature ofthe emergency, determines a severity of the emergency, and, based on thenature and severity of the emergency, generates a dispatchrecommendation suggesting the recommended form of emergency response forthe emergency. In some embodiments, the EMS gathers emergency datathrough sensors housed within the device or other devices associatedwith the emergency.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a method for facilitatingemergency communications by an emergency management system, the methodcomprising: a) identifying a user at risk of an emergency; b) presentingan emergency response prompt at a communication device associated withthe user; c) receiving confirmation of the emergency; d) in response toreceiving confirmation of the emergency, initiating an autonomouscommunication session with the user through the communication device; e)extracting emergency information from the autonomous communicationsession; and f) transmitting the emergency information to an emergencyservice provider (ESP). In some embodiments, initiating the autonomouscommunication session comprises transmitting one or more messagescomprising emergency response questions to the communication deviceaccording to a predetermined script. In some embodiments, the methodfurther comprises adapting the predetermined script during theautonomous communication session according to one or more responses fromthe user. In some embodiments, the emergency information extracted fromthe autonomous communication session comprises answers received from theuser in response to the emergency response questions. In someembodiments, the emergency information comprises content from one ormore messages received from the user through the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, a) the emergency responseprompt comprises a first SMS text message; and b) confirmation of theemergency comprises a second SMS text message received from the user inresponse to the first SMS text message. In some embodiments, a) theemergency response prompt comprises a push notification; and b)confirmation of the emergency comprises selection of the pushnotification. In some embodiments, a) the communication device is aninternet of things (IoT) device comprising a microphone and a speaker;and b) the autonomous communication session is an audio sessionconducted through the microphone and speaker of the IoT device. In someembodiments, initiating the autonomous communication session with theuser through the communication device comprises launching a mobileapplication on the communication device, wherein the mobile applicationcomprises a graphical user interface configured to facilitate theautonomous communication session. In some embodiments, the graphicaluser interface comprises two or more soft buttons for the user to submitresponses to at least one of multiple choice or yes or no questionsduring the autonomous communication session. In some embodiments, themethod further comprises: a) obtaining a location of the communicationdevice; and b) determining an appropriate ESP to receive the emergencyinformation based on the location of the communication device. In someembodiments, the emergency information comprises a photo or videoreceived from the communication device during the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, the method further comprisesdisplaying the emergency information through a graphical user interface(GUI) of an emergency response application executed on a computingdevice at the ESP. In some embodiments, identifying the user at risk ofthe emergency comprises detecting an emergency alert generated by thecommunication device. In some embodiments, identifying the user at riskof the emergency comprises detecting an emergency alert generated by anelectronic device associated with the user and distinct from thecommunication device. In some embodiments, the electronic device is anInternet of Things (IoT) device, a wearable device, or a securitymonitoring device. In some embodiments, identifying the user at risk ofthe emergency comprises detecting an emergency response anomalyassociated with an emergency alert associated with the user. In someembodiments, identifying the user at risk of the emergency comprises: a)detecting a negative status of an emergency alert associated with theemergency; b) presenting an option to initiate an autonomouscommunication session for the emergency alert within a graphical userinterface (GUI) of an emergency response application; and c) detectingselection of the option to initiate an autonomous communication sessionfor the emergency alert. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is further configured to determine a priority level of theemergency. In some embodiments, the priority level of the emergency isprovided to the ESP, wherein the priority level is optionally used bythe ESP to position an emergency communication corresponding to theemergency in a queue of emergencies based on priority level. In someembodiments, the method further comprises providing emergency assistanceto the user, wherein the emergency assistance comprises instructions forresponding to the emergency based at least on the emergency information.In some embodiments, the instructions for responding to the emergency isbased at least on an emergency type or a severity of the emergency. Insome embodiments, the emergency information comprises an injury,property damage, environmental danger, risk of violence, or anycombination thereof. In some embodiments, the environmental dangercomprises a gas leak or fire. In some embodiments, the instructions forresponding to the emergency comprises first aid, evacuation procedures,hazard identification, safety or emergency equipment protocol, or anycombination thereof.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a method for facilitatingemergency communications by an emergency management system, the methodcomprising: a) detecting an indication of an emergency; b) presenting anemergency response prompt at a communication device; c) receivingconfirmation of the emergency; d) in response to receiving confirmationof the emergency, initiating an autonomous communication session withthe communication device; e) extracting emergency information from theautonomous communication session; and f) transmitting the emergencyinformation to an emergency service provider (ESP).

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a system comprising: a) a networkserver comprising at least one processor; and b) an emergency managementsystem executed on the at least one processor and configured to: i)identify a user at risk of an emergency; ii) present an emergencyresponse prompt at a communication device associated with the user; iii)receive confirmation of the emergency; ) in response to receivingconfirmation of the emergency, initiate an autonomous communicationsession with the user through the communication device; e) extractemergency information from the autonomous communication session; and f)transmit the emergency information to an emergency service provider(ESP). In some embodiments, the emergency management system isconfigured to initiate the autonomous communication session bytransmitting one or more messages comprising emergency responsequestions to the communication device according to a predeterminedscript. In some embodiments, the emergency communication system isfurther configured to adapt the predetermined script during theautonomous communication session according to one or more responses fromthe user. In some embodiments, the emergency information extracted fromthe autonomous communication session comprises answers received from theuser in response to the emergency response questions. In someembodiments, the emergency information comprises content from one ormore messages received from the user through the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, a) the emergency responseprompt comprises a first SMS text message; and b) confirmation of theemergency comprises a second SMS text message received from the user inresponse to the first SMS text message. In some embodiments, a) theemergency response prompt comprises a push notification; and b)confirmation of the emergency comprises selection of the pushnotification. In some embodiments, a) the communication device is aninternet of things (IoT) device comprising a microphone and a speaker;and b) the autonomous communication session is an audio sessionconducted through the microphone and speaker of the IoT device. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is configured to initiatethe autonomous communication session with the user through thecommunication device by launching a mobile application on thecommunication device, wherein the mobile application comprises agraphical user interface configured to facilitate the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, the graphical user interfacecomprises two or more soft buttons for the user to submit responses toat least one of multiple choice or yes or no questions during theautonomous communication session. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system is configured to: a) obtain a location of thecommunication device; and b) determine an appropriate ESP to receive theemergency information based on the location of the communication device.In some embodiments, the emergency information comprises a photo orvideo received from the communication device during the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is further configured to display the emergency informationthrough a graphical user interface (GUI) of an emergency responseapplication executed on a computing device at the ESP. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is configured to identifythe user at risk of the emergency by detecting an emergency alertgenerated by the communication device. In some embodiments, theemergency management system is configured to identify the user at riskof the emergency by detecting an emergency alert generated by anelectronic device associated with the user and distinct from thecommunication device. In some embodiments, the electronic device is anInternet of Things (IoT) device, a wearable device, or a securitymonitoring device. In some embodiments, the emergency management systemis configured to identify the user at risk of the emergency by detectingan emergency response anomaly associated with an emergency alertassociated with the user. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is configured to identify the user at risk of the emergency by:a) detecting a negative status of an emergency alert associated with theemergency; b) presenting an option to initiate an autonomouscommunication session for the emergency alert within a graphical userinterface (GUI) of an emergency response application; and c) detectingselection of the option to initiate an autonomous communication sessionfor the emergency alert. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is further configured to determine a priority level of theemergency. In some embodiments, the priority level of the emergency isprovided to the ESP, wherein the priority level is optionally used bythe ESP to position an emergency communication corresponding to theemergency in a queue of emergencies based on priority level. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured toprovide emergency assistance to the user, wherein the emergencyassistance comprises instructions for responding to the emergency basedat least on the emergency information. In some embodiments, theinstructions for responding to the emergency is based at least on anemergency type or a severity of the emergency. In some embodiments, theemergency information comprises an injury, property damage,environmental danger, risk of violence, or any combination thereof. Insome embodiments, the environmental danger comprises a gas leak or fire.In some embodiments, the instructions for responding to the emergencycomprises first aid, evacuation procedures, hazard identification,safety or emergency equipment protocol, or any combination thereof.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a system comprising: a) a networkserver comprising at least one processor; and b) an emergency managementsystem executed on the at least one processor and configured to: i)detect an indication of an emergency; ii) present an emergency responseprompt at a communication device; iii) receive confirmation of theemergency; ) in response to receiving confirmation of the emergency,initiate an autonomous communication session with the communicationdevice; e) extract emergency information from the autonomouscommunication session; and f) transmit the emergency information to anemergency service provider (ESP).

In one aspect, disclosed herein is a method for facilitating emergencycommunications by an emergency management system, the method comprising:a) identifying a user potentially affected by an emergency; b) providingan emergency response message to a communication device associated withthe user; c) receiving confirmation of the emergency; d) in response toreceiving confirmation of the emergency, initiating an autonomouscommunication session with the user through the communication device; e)extracting emergency information from the autonomous communicationsession; and f) providing the emergency information to an emergencyservice provider (ESP). In some embodiments, the emergency informationcomprises content from one or more messages received from the userthrough the autonomous communication session. In some embodiments,initiating the autonomous communication session comprises providing oneor more messages comprising emergency response questions to thecommunication device according to a predetermined script. In someembodiments, the method further comprises adapting the predeterminedscript during the autonomous communication session according to one ormore responses from the user. In some embodiments, the predeterminedscript is adapted according to a decision tree. In some embodiments, theemergency information from the autonomous communication sessioncomprises answers received from the user in response to the emergencyresponse questions. In some embodiments: a) the emergency responsemessage comprises a first SMS text message; and b) confirmation of theemergency comprises a second SMS text message received from the user inresponse to the first SMS text message. In some embodiments: a) thecommunication device is an internet of things (IoT) device comprising amicrophone and a speaker; and b) the autonomous communication session isan audio session conducted through the microphone and speaker of the IoTdevice. In some embodiments, identifying the user potentially affectedby the emergency comprises detecting an emergency alert generated by thecommunication device. In some embodiments, identifying the userpotentially affected by the emergency comprises detecting an emergencyalert generated by an electronic device associated with the user. Insome embodiments, the electronic device is an Internet of Things (IoT)device, a wearable device, a sensor, or a security monitoring device. Insome embodiments, the electronic device is determined to be associatedwith the user by querying a database with identifying information forthe electronic device, wherein the database is configured to store userprofiles linked to associated electronic devices. In some embodiments,identifying the user potentially affected by the emergency comprisesdetecting an emergency alert generated by an electronic devicecommunicatively coupled to the communication device. In someembodiments, identifying the user potentially affected by the emergencycomprises: a) detecting an emergency call made from the communicationdevice to the ESP; and b) determining that the ESP is unable to respondto the emergency call, wherein the emergency response message istransmitted to the communication device in response to determining thatthe ESP is unable to respond to the emergency call. In some embodiments,identifying the user potentially affected by the emergency comprisesdetecting a message indicative of a potential emergency sent from thecommunication device. In some embodiments, the message indicative of apotential emergency is an SMS message sent from the communication deviceto the ESP. In some embodiments, initiating the autonomous communicationsession with the user through the communication device compriseslaunching a mobile application on the communication device, wherein themobile application comprises a graphical user interface configured tofacilitate the autonomous communication session. In some embodiments,the graphical user interface comprises two or more soft buttons for theuser to submit responses to at least one of multiple choice or yes or noquestions during the autonomous communication session. In someembodiments, the graphical user interface comprises a text entry fieldfor the user to submit free response responses to questions during theautonomous communication session. In some embodiments, the methodfurther comprises extracting emergency information from the autonomouscommunication session by parsing free response responses submitted bythe user during the autonomous communication session. In someembodiments, identifying the user potentially affected by the emergencycomprises: a) identifying the emergency as a group emergency affecting aplurality of people; b) determining an affected area for the emergency;c) receiving a location from the communication device; d) confirmingthat the location is within the affected area; and e) providing theemergency response message to the communication device in response toconfirming that the location is within the affected area. In someembodiments, the group emergency is a state of emergency declared by agovernment official. In some embodiments, the method further comprisesdetecting one or more social media posts indicative of the emergency;and b) wherein the user potentially affected by the emergency isidentified based on the one or more social media posts. In someembodiments, the one or more social media posts are posted by the userpotentially affected by the emergency. In some embodiments, the one ormore social media posts are posted by a third party who is not the userpotentially affected by the emergency. In some embodiments, the methodfurther comprises a) generating an emergency vicinity for the emergencybased on the one or more social media posts; and b) wherein the userpotentially affected by the emergency is identified as potentiallywithin the emergency vicinity. In some embodiments, the method furthercomprises: a) receiving a location from the communication device; b)confirming that the location is within the emergency vicinity; and c)providing the emergency response message to the communication device inresponse to confirming that the location is within the emergencyvicinity. In some embodiments: a) the emergency response messagecomprises a push notification; and b) confirmation of the emergencycomprises selection of the push notification. In some embodiments,initiating the autonomous communication session with the user furthercomprises providing one or more SMS text messages to the communicationdevice. In some embodiments, the one or more SMS text messages compriseyes or no questions.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a method for facilitatingemergency communications by an emergency management system, the methodcomprising: a) detecting an emergency response anomaly associated withan identifier of a communication device; b) in response to detecting theemergency response anomaly, initiating an autonomous communicationsession with the communication device; c) extracting emergencyinformation from the autonomous communication session; and d) providingthe emergency information to an emergency service provider (ESP). Insome embodiments, detecting the emergency response anomaly regarding theidentifier of the communication device comprises: a) detecting anemergency call made to the ESP; and b) detecting a failure of theemergency call. In some embodiments, detecting the emergency responseanomaly associated with the identifier of the communication devicecomprises: a) receiving, from the communication device, an emergencyalert comprising the identifier of the communication device; b)determining if a request for emergency information comprising theidentifier of the communication device is received from the ESP within apredetermined period of time; and c) detecting the emergency responseanomaly in response to determining that the request for emergencyinformation comprising the identifier of the communication device is notreceived from the ESP within the predetermined period of time. In someembodiments, detecting the emergency response anomaly associated withthe identifier of the communication device comprises: a) receiving, fromthe communication device, an emergency alert comprising the identifierof the communication device and a location of the communication device;b) determining one or more ESPs appropriate for responding to theemergency alert based on the location of the communication device,wherein the one or more ESPs comprises the ESP; c) determining if arequest for emergency information comprising the identifier of thecommunication device is received from any of the other or more ESPswithin a predetermined period of time; and d) detecting the emergencyresponse anomaly in response to determining that the request foremergency information comprising the identifier of the communicationdevice is not received from any of the one or more ESPs within thepredetermined period of time. In some embodiments, detecting theemergency response anomaly associated with the identifier of thecommunication device comprises: a) detecting an emergency call made fromthe communication device to the ESP; and b) detecting that the ESP isunable to respond to the emergency call.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a method for facilitatingemergency communications, the method comprising: a) determining a useris at risk of an emergency; b) initiating an autonomous communicationsession with a communication device associated with the user; c)extracting emergency information from the autonomous communicationsession; and d) providing the emergency information to an emergencyservice provider (ESP).

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a system for facilitatingemergency communications, the system comprising: a) a communicationdevice associated with a user; b) a network server comprising at leastone processor; and c) an emergency management system executed on the atleast one processor and configured to: i) identify a user potentiallyaffected by an emergency; ii) transmit an emergency response message tothe communication device associated with the user; iii) receiveconfirmation of the emergency; iv) in response to receiving confirmationof the emergency, initiate an autonomous communication session with theuser through the communication device; v) extract emergency informationfrom the autonomous communication session; and vi) transmit theemergency information to an emergency service provider (ESP). In someembodiments, the emergency information comprises content from one ormore messages received from the user through the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is further configured to initiate the autonomous communicationsession by providing one or more messages comprising emergency responsequestions to the communication device according to a predeterminedscript. In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to adapt the predetermined script during the autonomouscommunication session according one or more responses from the user. Insome embodiments, the predetermined script is adapted according to adecision tree. In some embodiments, the emergency information from theautonomous communication session comprises answers received from theuser in response to the emergency response questions. In someembodiments: a) the emergency response message comprises a first SMStext message; and b) confirmation of the emergency comprises a secondSMS text message received from the user in response to the first SMStext message. In some embodiments: a) the communication device is aninternet of things (IoT) device comprising a microphone and a speaker;and b) the autonomous communication session is an audio sessionconducted through the microphone and speaker of the IoT device. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured toidentify the user potentially affected by the emergency by detecting anemergency alert generated by the communication device. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured toidentify the user potentially affected by the emergency by detecting anemergency alert generated by an electronic device associated with theuser. In some embodiments, the electronic device is an Internet ofThings (IoT) device, a wearable device, a sensor, or a securitymonitoring device. In some embodiments, the electronic device isdetermined to be associated with the user by querying a database withidentifying information for the electronic device, wherein the databaseis configured to store user profiles linked to associated electronicdevices. In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to identify the user potentially affected by the emergency bydetecting an emergency alert generated by an electronic devicecommunicatively coupled to the communication device. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured toidentify the user potentially affected by the emergency by: a) detectingan emergency call made from the communication device to the ESP; and b)determining that the ESP is unable to respond to the emergency call,wherein the emergency response message is transmitted to thecommunication device in response to determining that the ESP is unableto respond to the emergency call. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system is further configured to identify the user potentiallyaffected by the emergency by detecting a message indicative of apotential emergency sent from the communication device. In someembodiments, the message indicative of a potential emergency is an SMSmessage sent from the communication device to the ESP. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured toinitiate the autonomous communication session with the user through thecommunication device by launching a mobile application on thecommunication device, wherein the mobile application comprises agraphical user interface configured to facilitate the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, the graphical user interfacecomprises two or more soft buttons for the user to submit responses toat least one of multiple choice or yes or no questions during theautonomous communication session. In some embodiments, the graphicaluser interface comprises a text entry field for the user to submit freeresponse responses to questions during the autonomous communicationsession. In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to extract emergency information from the autonomouscommunication session by parsing free response responses submitted bythe user during the autonomous communication session. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured toidentify the user potentially affected by the emergency by: a)identifying the emergency as a group emergency affecting a plurality ofpeople; b) determining an affected area for the emergency; c) receivinga location from the communication device; d) confirming that thelocation is within the affected area; and e) providing the emergencyresponse message to the communication device in response to confirmingthat the location is within the affected area. In some embodiments, thegroup emergency is a state of emergency declared by a governmentofficial. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to detect one or more social media posts indicativeof the emergency; and b) wherein the user potentially affected by theemergency is identified based on the one or more social media posts. Insome embodiments, the one or more social media posts are posted by theuser potentially affected by the emergency. In some embodiments, the oneor more social media posts are posted by a third party who is not theuser potentially affected by the emergency. In some embodiments: a) theemergency management system is further configured to generate anemergency vicinity for the emergency based on the one or more socialmedia posts; and b) the user potentially affected by the emergency isidentified as potentially within the emergency vicinity. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured to:a) receive a location from the communication device; b) confirm that thelocation is within the emergency vicinity; and c) transmit the emergencyresponse message to the communication device in response to confirmingthat the location is within the emergency vicinity. In some embodiments:a) the emergency response message comprises a push notification; and b)confirmation of the emergency comprises selection of the pushnotification. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to initiate the autonomous communication session withthe user by providing one or more SMS text messages to the communicationdevice. In some embodiments, the one or more SMS text messages compriseyes or no questions.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a system for facilitatingemergency communications, the system comprising: a) a communicationdevice associated with a user; b) a network server comprising at leastone processor; and c) an emergency management system executed on the atleast one processor and configured to: i) detect an emergency responseanomaly associated with an identifier of a communication device; ii) inresponse to detecting the emergency response anomaly, initiating anautonomous communication session with the communication device; iii)extract emergency information from the autonomous communication session;and iv) transmit the emergency information to an emergency serviceprovider (ESP). In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to detect the emergency response anomaly regardingthe identifier of the communication device by: a) detecting an emergencycall made to the ESP; and b) detecting a failure of the emergency call.In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to detect the emergency response anomaly regarding theidentifier of the communication device by: a) receiving, from thecommunication device, an emergency alert comprising the identifier ofthe communication device; b) determining if a request for emergencyinformation comprising the identifier of the communication device isreceived from the ESP within a predetermined period of time; and c)detecting the emergency response anomaly in response to determining thatthe request for emergency information comprising the identifier of thecommunication device is not received from the ESP within thepredetermined period of time. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system is further configured to detect the emergency responseanomaly regarding the identifier of the communication device by: a)receiving, from the communication device, an emergency alert comprisingthe identifier of the communication device and a location of thecommunication device; b) determining one or more ESPs appropriate forresponding to the emergency alert based on the location of thecommunication device, wherein the one or more ESPs comprises the ESP; c)determining if a request for emergency information comprising theidentifier of the communication device is received from any of the otheror more ESPs within a predetermined period of time; and d) detecting theemergency response anomaly in response to determining that the requestfor emergency information comprising the identifier of the communicationdevice is not received from any of the one or more ESPs within thepredetermined period of time. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system is further configured to detect the emergency responseanomaly regarding the identifier of the communication device by: a)detecting an emergency call made from the communication device to theESP; and b) detecting that the ESP is unable to respond to the emergencycall.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a system for facilitatingemergency communications, the system comprising: a) a communicationdevice associated with a user; b) a network server comprising at leastone processor; and c) an emergency management system executed on the atleast one processor and configured to: i) determine a user is at risk ofan emergency; ii) initiate an autonomous communication session with acommunication device associated with the user; iii) extract emergencyinformation from the autonomous communication session; and iv) transmitthe emergency information to an emergency service provider (ESP).

In another aspect, disclosed herein is non-transitory computer readablestorage media encoded with at least one computer program includinginstructions executable by at least one processor to perform stepscomprising: a) identifying a user potentially affected by an emergency;b) providing an emergency response message to a communication deviceassociated with the user; c) receiving confirmation of the emergency; d)in response to receiving confirmation of the emergency, initiating anautonomous communication session with the user through the communicationdevice; e) extracting emergency information from the autonomouscommunication session; and f) providing the emergency information to anemergency service provider (ESP). In some embodiments, the emergencyinformation comprises content from one or more messages received fromthe user through the autonomous communication session. In someembodiments, initiating the autonomous communication session comprisesproviding one or more messages comprising emergency response questionsto the communication device according to a predetermined script. In someembodiments, the steps further comprise adapting the predeterminedscript during the autonomous communication session according to one ormore responses from the user. In some embodiments, the predeterminedscript is adapted according to a decision tree. In some embodiments, theemergency information from the autonomous communication sessioncomprises answers received from the user in response to the emergencyresponse questions. In some embodiments: a) the emergency responsemessage comprises a first SMS text message; and b) confirmation of theemergency comprises a second SMS text message received from the user inresponse to the first SMS text message. In some embodiments: a) thecommunication device is an internet of things (IoT) device comprising amicrophone and a speaker; and b) the autonomous communication session isan audio session conducted through the microphone and speaker of the IoTdevice. In some embodiments, identifying the user potentially affectedby the emergency comprises detecting an emergency alert generated by thecommunication device. In some embodiments, identifying the userpotentially affected by the emergency comprises detecting an emergencyalert generated by an electronic device associated with the user. Insome embodiments, the electronic device is an Internet of Things (IoT)device, a wearable device, a sensor, or a security monitoring device. Insome embodiments, the electronic device is determined to be associatedwith the user by querying a database with identifying information forthe electronic device, wherein the database is configured to store userprofiles linked to associated electronic devices. In some embodiments,identifying the user potentially affected by the emergency comprisesdetecting an emergency alert generated by an electronic devicecommunicatively coupled to the communication device. In someembodiments, identifying the user potentially affected by the emergencycomprises: a) detecting an emergency call made from the communicationdevice to the ESP; and b) determining that the ESP is unable to respondto the emergency call, wherein the emergency response message istransmitted to the communication device in response to determining thatthe ESP is unable to respond to the emergency call. In some embodiments,identifying the user potentially affected by the emergency comprisesdetecting a message indicative of a potential emergency sent from thecommunication device. In some embodiments, the message indicative of apotential emergency is an SMS message sent from the communication deviceto the ESP. In some embodiments, initiating the autonomous communicationsession with the user through the communication device compriseslaunching a mobile application on the communication device, wherein themobile application comprises a graphical user interface configured tofacilitate the autonomous communication session. In some embodiments,the graphical user interface comprises two or more soft buttons for theuser to submit responses to at least one of multiple choice or yes or noquestions during the autonomous communication session. In someembodiments, the graphical user interface comprises a text entry fieldfor the user to submit free response responses to questions during theautonomous communication session. In some embodiments, the steps furthercomprise extracting emergency information from the autonomouscommunication session by parsing free response responses submitted bythe user during the autonomous communication session. In someembodiments, identifying the user potentially affected by the emergencycomprises: a) identifying the emergency as a group emergency affecting aplurality of people; b) determining an affected area for the emergency;c) receiving a location from the communication device; d) confirmingthat the location is within the affected area; and e) providing theemergency response message to the communication device in response toconfirming that the location is within the affected area. In someembodiments, the group emergency is a state of emergency declared by agovernment official. In some embodiments, the steps further comprise a)detecting one or more social media posts indicative of the emergency;and b) wherein the user potentially affected by the emergency isidentified based on the one or more social media posts. In someembodiments, the one or more social media posts are posted by the userpotentially affected by the emergency. In some embodiments, the one ormore social media posts are posted by a third party who is not the userpotentially affected by the emergency. In some embodiments, the stepsfurther comprise a) generating an emergency vicinity for the emergencybased on the one or more social media posts; and b) wherein the userpotentially affected by the emergency is identified as potentiallywithin the emergency vicinity. In some embodiments, the steps furthercomprise: a) receiving a location from the communication device; b)confirming that the location is within the emergency vicinity; and c)providing the emergency response message to the communication device inresponse to confirming that the location is within the emergencyvicinity. In some embodiments: a) the emergency response messagecomprises a push notification; and b) confirmation of the emergencycomprises selection of the push notification. In some embodiments,initiating the autonomous communication session with the user furthercomprises providing one or more SMS text messages to the communicationdevice. In some embodiments, the one or more SMS text messages compriseyes or no questions.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is non-transitory computer readablestorage media encoded with at least one computer program includinginstructions executable by at least one processor to perform stepscomprising: a) detecting an emergency response anomaly associated withan identifier of a communication device; b) in response to detecting theemergency response anomaly, initiating an autonomous communicationsession with the communication device; c) extracting emergencyinformation from the autonomous communication session; and d) providingthe emergency information to an emergency service provider (ESP). Insome embodiments, detecting the emergency response anomaly regarding theidentifier of the communication device comprises: a) detecting anemergency call made to the ESP; and b) detecting a failure of theemergency call. In some embodiments, detecting the emergency responseanomaly associated with the identifier of the communication devicecomprises: a) receiving, from the communication device, an emergencyalert comprising the identifier of the communication device; b)determining if a request for emergency information comprising theidentifier of the communication device is received from the ESP within apredetermined period of time; and c) detecting the emergency responseanomaly in response to determining that the request for emergencyinformation comprising the identifier of the communication device is notreceived from the ESP within the predetermined period of time. In someembodiments, detecting the emergency response anomaly associated withthe identifier of the communication device comprises: a) receiving, fromthe communication device, an emergency alert comprising the identifierof the communication device and a location of the communication device;b) determining one or more ESPs appropriate for responding to theemergency alert based on the location of the communication device,wherein the one or more ESPs comprises the ESP; c) determining if arequest for emergency information comprising the identifier of thecommunication device is received from any of the other or more ESPswithin a predetermined period of time; and d) detecting the emergencyresponse anomaly in response to determining that the request foremergency information comprising the identifier of the communicationdevice is not received from any of the one or more ESPs within thepredetermined period of time. In some embodiments, detecting theemergency response anomaly associated with the identifier of thecommunication device comprises: a) detecting an emergency call made fromthe communication device to the ESP; and b) detecting that the ESP isunable to respond to the emergency call.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is non-transitory computer readablestorage media encoded with at least one computer program includinginstructions executable by at least one processor to perform stepscomprising: a) determining a user is at risk of an emergency; b)initiating an autonomous communication session with a communicationdevice associated with the user; c) extracting emergency informationfrom the autonomous communication session; and d) providing theemergency information to an emergency service provider (ESP).

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a method for providing emergencyassistance by an emergency management system, the method comprising: a)detecting an emergency alert associated with an emergency; b)identifying an electronic device associated with the emergency alert; c)providing an emergency assistant application through an interface of theelectronic device; d) receiving, from the electronic device, emergencyinformation obtained through the interface of the electronic device; e)based at least in part on the emergency information received from theelectronic device, determining an emergency category for the emergency;f) based at least on the emergency category, retrieving a safetyrecommendation from a safety recommendation database; and g) deliveringthe safety recommendation to the electronic device to be presentedthrough the interface. In some embodiments, the safety recommendation isdelivered through the interface of the electronic device as text. Insome embodiments, the safety recommendation is delivered through theinterface of the electronic device as audio. In some embodiments, theaudio is a text-to-speech conversion of a text file. In someembodiments, the safety recommendation comprises a video. In someembodiments, the electronic device is one of a smartphone, a wearabledevice, an IoT device, or a vehicle. In some embodiments: a) theelectronic device is a communication device; and b) providing theemergency assistant through the interface of the electronic devicefurther comprises: i) providing an emergency response message to thecommunication device; ii) receiving confirmation of the emergency; andiii) in response to receiving confirmation of the emergency, initiatingan autonomous communication session with the user through thecommunication device. In some embodiments: a) the emergency responsemessage comprises a first SMS text message; and b) confirmation of theemergency comprises a second SMS text message received from the user inresponse to the first SMS text message. In some embodiments, initiatingthe autonomous communication session with the user further comprisesproviding one or more SMS text messages to the communication device. Insome embodiments, delivering the safety recommendation through theinterface of the electronic device further comprises providing an SMStext message comprising the safety recommendation to the communicationdevice. In some embodiments, receiving emergency information obtainedthrough the interface of the electronic device further comprisesreceiving one or more SMS text messages from the communication deviceand extracting the emergency information from the one or more SMS textmessages. In some embodiments: a) the emergency response messagecomprises a push notification; and b) confirmation of the emergencycomprises selection of the push notification. In some embodiments,initiating the autonomous communication session with the user furthercomprises launching a mobile application on the communication device. Insome embodiments, the mobile application comprises a graphical userinterface through which the autonomous communication session is held. Insome embodiments, the graphical user interface comprises one or moresoft buttons or text entry fields for the user to respond to questionsposed through the emergency assistant application during the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, receiving the emergencyinformation obtained through the interface of the electronic devicecomprises receiving responses to questions posed through the emergencyassistant application during the autonomous communication session. Insome embodiments, the safety recommendation delivered to thecommunication device is displayed through the graphical user interface.In some embodiments: a) the electronic device is an internet-of-things(IoT) device comprising a microphone and a speaker; and b) providing theemergency assistant application through the interface of the electronicdevice comprises: i) providing an emergency response message to the IoTdevice; ii) audibly playing the emergency response message through thespeaker; iii) receiving verbal confirmation of the emergency through themicrophone; iv) in response to receiving verbal confirmation of theemergency, initiating an autonomous communication session with a user ofthe IoT device, wherein the autonomous communication session is heldusing the speaker and microphone. In some embodiments, initiating theautonomous communication session with the user further comprises audiblyplaying one or more audio messages through the speaker. In someembodiments, delivering the safety recommendation to the electronicdevice further comprises audibly playing the safety recommendationthrough the speaker. In some embodiments, receiving emergencyinformation comprises receiving, from the user, verbal responses toquestions posed through the emergency assistant application during theautonomous communication session through the microphone. In someembodiments: a) the electronic device is a wearable device; and b)providing the emergency assistant application through the interface ofthe electronic device further comprises: i) providing an emergencyresponse message to the wearable device; ii) receiving confirmation ofthe emergency; and iii) in response to receiving confirmation of theemergency, initiating an autonomous communication session with a user ofthe wearable device. In some embodiments: a) the wearable devicecomprises a microphone and a speaker; b) providing the emergencyresponse message to the wearable device further comprises audiblyplaying the emergency response message through the speaker; and c)wherein receiving confirmation of the emergency further comprisesreceiving verbal confirmation of the emergency through the microphone.In some embodiments, initiating the autonomous communication sessionwith the user further comprises audibly playing one or more audiomessages through the speaker. In some embodiments, delivering the safetyrecommendation to the electronic device further comprises audiblyplaying the safety recommendation through the speaker. In someembodiments: a) the emergency response message comprises a pushnotification; and b) confirmation of the emergency comprises selectionof the push notification. In some embodiments, initiating the autonomouscommunication session with the user further comprises launching a mobileapplication on the wearable device. In some embodiments, the mobileapplication comprises a graphical user interface through which theautonomous communication session is held. In some embodiments, thegraphical user interface comprises one or more soft buttons for the userto respond to questions during the autonomous communication session. Insome embodiments, receiving emergency information from the electronicdevice comprises receiving, from the user, responses to questions posedthrough the emergency assistant application during the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, the safety recommendation isdelivered to the electronic device through the graphical user interfaceof the mobile application on the wearable device. In some embodiments:a) the electronic device is communicatively coupled to a headset; b) theheadset comprises a microphone and a speaker; and c) providing theemergency assistant application through the interface of the electronicdevice further comprises: i) providing an emergency response message tothe electronic device; ii) audibly playing the emergency responsemessage through the speaker; iii) receiving verbal confirmation of theemergency through the microphone; iv) in response to receivingconfirmation of the emergency, initiating an autonomous communicationsession with a user of the electronic device. In some embodiments,initiating the autonomous communication session further comprisesaudibly playing one or more audio messages through the speaker. In someembodiments, receiving emergency information from the electronic devicefurther comprises receiving, from the user, verbal responses toquestions posed through the emergency assistant application during theautonomous communication session through the microphone. In someembodiments, delivering the safety recommendation to the electronicdevice further comprises audibly playing the safety recommendationthrough the speaker. In some embodiments, the electronic device is acommunication device. In some embodiments, the electronic device is awearable device. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: a)determining a nature of the emergency; and b) wherein determining theemergency category is based at least in part on the emergencyinformation received through the interface of the electronic device andat least in part on the nature of the emergency. In some embodiments,the nature of the emergency is one of medical, fire, or police. In someembodiments, the emergency alert comprises the nature of the emergency.In some embodiments, the method further comprises: a) gatheringemergency data; and b) wherein the nature of the emergency is determinedusing the emergency data. In some embodiments, the emergency datacomprises at least one of sensor data, environmental data, health data,or medical history. In some embodiments, the emergency data is gatheredfrom sensors integrated into the electronic device. In some embodiments,the emergency data is gathered from an emergency data database. In someembodiments, the emergency data is gathered from a second electronicdevice associated with a user of the electronic device. In someembodiments, the emergency data is gathered from a second electronicdevice communicatively coupled to the electronic device. In someembodiments, the second electronic device is one of a smartphone, awearable device, an IoT device, or a vehicle. In some embodiments, themethod further comprises: a) accessing a decision tree for safetyrecommendations; and b) stepping through the decision tree using theemergency information received through the interface of the electronicdevice to determine the emergency category. In some embodiments, themethod further comprises a) determining a nature of the emergency; andb) wherein the decision tree is accessed based on the nature of theemergency. In some embodiments, each step of the decision tree points toa corresponding safety recommendation within the safety recommendationdatabase. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: a)initiating an autonomous communication session with a user of theelectronic device; b) posing questions to the user through the emergencyassistant application; c) wherein receiving the emergency informationfrom the electronic device further comprises receiving responses to thequestions posed through the emergency assistant application during theautonomous communication session; and d) wherein each response receivedfrom the user during the autonomous communication session moves theemergency management system one step forward on the decision tree. Insome embodiments, the questions posed through the emergency assistantapplication are limited to a predetermined number of questions. In someembodiments, the predetermined number of questions is two. In someembodiments, one of the questions posed to the user through theemergency assistant application prompts the user to identify anafflicted body part. In some embodiments, the method further comprisesreceiving a verbal response from the user identifying the afflicted bodypart. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: a) providing avirtual body diagram through the interface of the electronic device; andb) receiving a response identifying the afflicted body part, from theuser, through the virtual body diagram provided through the interface ofthe electronic device.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a system for providing emergencyassistance by an emergency management system, the system comprising: a)an electronic device; b) a network server comprising at least oneprocessor; and c) an emergency management system executed on the atleast one processor and configured to: i) detect an emergency alertassociated with an emergency; ii) identify the electronic device asassociated with the emergency alert; iii) provide an emergency assistantapplication through an interface of the electronic device; iv) receive,from the electronic device, emergency information obtained through theinterface of the electronic device; v) based at least in part on theemergency information from the electronic device, determine an emergencycategory for the emergency; vi) based at least on the emergencycategory, retrieve a safety recommendation from a safety recommendationdatabase; and vii) deliver the safety recommendation to the electronicdevice to be presented through the interface. In some embodiments, theemergency management system is configured to deliver the safetyrecommendation to the electronic device as text. In some embodiments,the emergency management system is configured to deliver the safetyrecommendation to the electronic device as audio. In some embodiments,the audio is a text-to-speech conversion of a text file. In someembodiments, the safety recommendation comprises a video. In someembodiments, the electronic device is one of a smartphone, a wearabledevice, an IoT device, or a vehicle. In some embodiments: a) theelectronic device is a communication device; and b) the emergencymanagement system is further configured to provide the emergencyassistant application through the interface of the electronic device by:i) providing an emergency response message to the communication device;ii) receiving confirmation of the emergency; and iii) in response toreceiving confirmation of the emergency, initiating an autonomouscommunication session with the user through the communication device. Insome embodiments: a) the emergency response message comprises a firstSMS text message; and b) confirmation of the emergency comprises asecond SMS text message received from the user in response to the firstSMS text message. In some embodiments, the emergency management systemis further configured to initiate the autonomous communication sessionwith the user by providing one or more SMS text messages to thecommunication device. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is further configured to deliver the safety recommendationthrough the interface of the electronic device by providing an SMS textmessage comprising the safety recommendation to the communicationdevice. In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to receive emergency information obtained through theinterface of the electronic device by receiving one or more SMS textmessages from the communication device and extracting the emergencyinformation from the one or more SMS text messages. In some embodiments:a) the emergency response message comprises a push notification; and b)confirmation of the emergency comprises selection of the pushnotification. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to initiate the autonomous communication session withthe user by launching a mobile application on the communication device.In some embodiments, the mobile application comprises a graphical userinterface through which the autonomous communication session is held. Insome embodiments, the graphical user interface comprises one or moresoft buttons or text entry fields for the user to respond to questionsposed through the emergency assistant application during the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is further configured to receive the emergency informationobtained through the interface of the electronic device by receiving,from the user, responses to questions posed through the emergencyassistant application during the autonomous communication session. Insome embodiments, the emergency management system is configured todeliver the safety recommendation to the communication device throughthe graphical user interface. In some embodiments: a) the electronicdevice is an internet-of-things (IoT) device comprising a microphone anda speaker; and b) the emergency management system is further configuredto provide the emergency assistant application through the interface ofthe electronic device by: i) providing an emergency response message tothe IoT device; ii) audibly playing the emergency response messagethrough the speaker; iii) receiving verbal confirmation of the emergencythrough the microphone; iv) in response to receiving verbal confirmationof the emergency, initiating an autonomous communication session with auser of the communication, wherein the autonomous communication sessionis held using the speaker and microphone. In some embodiments, theemergency management system is further configured to initiate theautonomous communication session with the user by audibly playing one ormore audio messages through the speaker. In some embodiments, theemergency management system is further configured to deliver the safetyrecommendation through the interface of the electronic device by audiblyplaying the safety recommendation through the speaker. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured toreceive emergency information obtained through the interface of theelectronic device by receiving, from the user, verbal responses toquestions posed through the emergency assistant application during theautonomous communication session through the microphone. In someembodiments: a) the electronic device is a wearable device; and b) theemergency management system is further configured to provide theemergency assistant application through the interface of the electronicdevice by: i) providing an emergency response message to the wearabledevice; ii) receiving confirmation of the emergency; and iii) inresponse to receiving confirmation of the emergency, initiating anautonomous communication session with a user of the wearable device. Insome embodiments: a) the wearable device comprises a microphone and aspeaker; b) the emergency management system is further configured totransmit the emergency response message to the wearable device byaudibly playing the emergency response message through the speaker; andc) wherein the emergency management system is further configured toreceive confirmation of the emergency by receiving verbal confirmationof the emergency through the microphone. In some embodiments, theemergency management system is further configured to initiate theautonomous communication session with the user by audibly playing one ormore audio messages through the speaker. In some embodiments, theemergency management system is further configured to deliver the safetyrecommendation through the interface of the electronic device by audiblyplaying the safety recommendation through the speaker. In someembodiments: a) the emergency response message comprises a pushnotification; and b) confirmation of the emergency comprises selectionof the push notification. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is further configured to initiate the autonomous communicationsession with the user by launching a mobile application on the wearabledevice. In some embodiments, the mobile application comprises agraphical user interface through which the autonomous communicationsession is held. In some embodiments, the graphical user interfacecomprises one or more soft buttons for the user to respond to questionsduring the autonomous communication session. In some embodiments, theemergency management system is further configured to receive emergencyinformation obtained through the interface of the electronic device byreceiving, from the user, responses to questions posed through theemergency assistant application during the autonomous communicationsession. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isconfigured to deliver the safety recommendation to the electronic devicethrough the graphical user interface of the mobile application on thewearable device. In some embodiments: a) the electronic device iscommunicatively coupled to a headset; b) the headset comprises amicrophone and a speaker; and c) the emergency management system isfurther configured to provide the emergency assistant applicationthrough the interface of the electronic device by: i) providing anemergency response message to the electronic device; ii) audibly playingthe emergency response message through the speaker; iii) receivingverbal confirmation of the emergency through the microphone; iv) inresponse to receiving confirmation of the emergency, initiating anautonomous communication session with a user of the electronic device.In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to initiate the autonomous communication session by audiblyplaying one or more audio messages through the speaker. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured toreceive emergency information obtained through the interface of theelectronic device by receiving, from the user, verbal responses toquestions posed through the emergency assistant application during theautonomous communication session through the microphone. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured todeliver the safety recommendation through the interface of theelectronic device by audibly playing the safety recommendation throughthe speaker. In some embodiments, the electronic device is acommunication device. In some embodiments, the electronic device is awearable device. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to: a) determine a nature of the emergency; and b)determine the emergency category based at least in part on the emergencyinformation received through the interface of the electronic device andat least in part on the nature of the emergency. In some embodiments,the nature of the emergency is one of medical, fire, or police. In someembodiments, the emergency alert comprises the nature of the emergency.In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to: a) gather emergency data; and b) determine the nature ofthe emergency using the emergency data. In some embodiments, theemergency data comprises at least one of sensor data, environmentaldata, health data, or medical history. In some embodiments, theemergency management system is configured to gather the emergency datafrom sensors integrated into the electronic device. In some embodiments,the emergency management system is configured to gather the emergencydata from an emergency data database. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system is configured to gather the emergency data from asecond electronic device associated with a user of the electronicdevice. In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to gather the emergency data from a second electronic devicecommunicatively coupled to the electronic device. In some embodiments,the second electronic device is one of a smartphone, a wearable device,an IoT device, or a vehicle. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system is further configured to: a) access a decision treefor safety recommendations; and b) step through the decision tree usingthe emergency information received through the interface of theelectronic device to determine the emergency category. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured to:a) determine a nature of the emergency; and b) access the decision treebased on the nature of the emergency. In some embodiments, each step ofthe decision tree points to a corresponding safety recommendation withinthe safety recommendation database. In some embodiments: a) theemergency management system is further configured to: i) initiate anautonomous communication session with a user of the electronic device;ii) pose questions to the user through the emergency assistantapplication; iii) receive the emergency information obtained through theinterface of the electronic device by receiving responses to thequestions posed through the emergency assistant application during theautonomous communication session; and b) wherein each response receivedfrom the user during the autonomous communication session moves theemergency management system one step forward on the decision tree. Insome embodiments, the emergency management system is further configuredto limit the questions posed through the emergency assistant applicationto a predetermined number of questions. In some embodiments, thepredetermined number of questions is two. In some embodiments, one ofthe questions posed to the user through the emergency assistantapplication prompts the user to identify an afflicted body part. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured toreceive a verbal response from the user identifying the afflicted bodypart. In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to: a) provide a virtual body diagram through the interfaceof the electronic device; and b) receive a response, from the user,through the virtual body diagram provided through the interface of theelectronic device.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is non-transitory computer readablestorage media encoded with at least one computer program includinginstructions executable by at least one processor to perform stepscomprising: a) detecting an emergency alert associated with anemergency; b) identifying an electronic device associated with theemergency alert; c) providing an emergency assistant application throughan interface of the electronic device; d) receiving, from the electronicdevice, emergency information obtained through the interface of theelectronic device; e) based at least in part on the emergencyinformation received from the electronic device, determining anemergency category for the emergency; f) based at least on the emergencycategory, retrieving a safety recommendation from a safetyrecommendation database; and g) delivering the safety recommendation tothe electronic device to be presented through the interface. In someembodiments, the safety recommendation is delivered through theinterface of the electronic device as text. In some embodiments, thesafety recommendation is delivered through the interface of theelectronic device as audio. In some embodiments, the audio is atext-to-speech conversion of a text file. In some embodiments, thesafety recommendation comprises a video. In some embodiments, theelectronic device is one of a smartphone, a wearable device, an IoTdevice, or a vehicle. In some embodiments: a) the electronic device is acommunication device; and b) providing the emergency assistant throughthe interface of the electronic device further comprises: i) providingan emergency response message to the communication device; ii) receivingconfirmation of the emergency; and iii) in response to receivingconfirmation of the emergency, initiating an autonomous communicationsession with the user through the communication device. In someembodiments: a) the emergency response message comprises a first SMStext message; and b) confirmation of the emergency comprises a secondSMS text message received from the user in response to the first SMStext message. In some embodiments, initiating the autonomouscommunication session with the user further comprises providing one ormore SMS text messages to the communication device. In some embodiments,delivering the safety recommendation through the interface of theelectronic device further comprises providing an SMS text messagecomprising the safety recommendation to the communication device. Insome embodiments, receiving emergency information obtained through theinterface of the electronic device further comprises receiving one ormore SMS text messages from the communication device and extracting theemergency information from the one or more SMS text messages. In someembodiments: a) the emergency response message comprises a pushnotification; and b) confirmation of the emergency comprises selectionof the push notification. In some embodiments, initiating the autonomouscommunication session with the user further comprises launching a mobileapplication on the communication device. In some embodiments, the mobileapplication comprises a graphical user interface through which theautonomous communication session is held. In some embodiments, thegraphical user interface comprises one or more soft buttons or textentry fields for the user to respond to questions posed through theemergency assistant application during the autonomous communicationsession. In some embodiments, receiving the emergency informationobtained through the interface of the electronic device comprisesreceiving responses to questions posed through the emergency assistantapplication during the autonomous communication session. In someembodiments, the safety recommendation delivered to the communicationdevice is displayed through the graphical user interface. In someembodiments: a) the electronic device is an internet-of-things (IoT)device comprising a microphone and a speaker; and b) providing theemergency assistant application through the interface of the electronicdevice comprises: i) providing an emergency response message to the IoTdevice; ii) audibly playing the emergency response message through thespeaker; iii) receiving verbal confirmation of the emergency through themicrophone; iv) in response to receiving verbal confirmation of theemergency, initiating an autonomous communication session with a user ofthe IoT device, wherein the autonomous communication session is heldusing the speaker and microphone. In some embodiments, initiating theautonomous communication session with the user further comprises audiblyplaying one or more audio messages through the speaker. In someembodiments, delivering the safety recommendation to the electronicdevice further comprises audibly playing the safety recommendationthrough the speaker. In some embodiments, receiving emergencyinformation comprises receiving, from the user, verbal responses toquestions posed through the emergency assistant application during theautonomous communication session through the microphone. In someembodiments: a) the electronic device is a wearable device; and b)providing the emergency assistant application through the interface ofthe electronic device further comprises: i) providing an emergencyresponse message to the wearable device; ii) receiving confirmation ofthe emergency; and iii) in response to receiving confirmation of theemergency, initiating an autonomous communication session with a user ofthe wearable device. In some embodiments, a) the wearable devicecomprises a microphone and a speaker; b) providing the emergencyresponse message to the wearable device further comprises audiblyplaying the emergency response message through the speaker; and c)wherein receiving confirmation of the emergency further comprisesreceiving verbal confirmation of the emergency through the microphone.In some embodiments, initiating the autonomous communication sessionwith the user further comprises audibly playing one or more audiomessages through the speaker. In some embodiments, delivering the safetyrecommendation to the electronic device further comprises audiblyplaying the safety recommendation through the speaker. In someembodiments: a) the emergency response message comprises a pushnotification; and b) confirmation of the emergency comprises selectionof the push notification. In some embodiments, initiating the autonomouscommunication session with the user further comprises launching a mobileapplication on the wearable device. In some embodiments, the mobileapplication comprises a graphical user interface through which theautonomous communication session is held. In some embodiments, thegraphical user interface comprises one or more soft buttons for the userto respond to questions during the autonomous communication session. Insome embodiments, receiving emergency information from the electronicdevice comprises receiving, from the user, responses to questions posedthrough the emergency assistant application during the autonomouscommunication session. In some embodiments, the safety recommendation isdelivered to the electronic device through the graphical user interfaceof the mobile application on the wearable device. In some embodiments:a) the electronic device is communicatively coupled to a headset; b) theheadset comprises a microphone and a speaker; and c) wherein providingthe emergency assistant application through the interface of theelectronic device further comprises: i) providing an emergency responsemessage to the electronic device; ii) audibly playing the emergencyresponse message through the speaker; iii) receiving verbal confirmationof the emergency through the microphone; iv) in response to receivingconfirmation of the emergency, initiating an autonomous communicationsession with a user of the electronic device. In some embodiments,initiating the autonomous communication session further comprisesaudibly playing one or more audio messages through the speaker. In someembodiments, receiving emergency information from the electronic devicefurther comprises receiving, from the user, verbal responses toquestions posed through the emergency assistant application during theautonomous communication session through the microphone. In someembodiments, delivering the safety recommendation to the electronicdevice further comprises audibly playing the safety recommendationthrough the speaker. In some embodiments, the electronic device is acommunication device. In some embodiments, the electronic device is awearable device. In some embodiments, the steps further comprise: a)determining a nature of the emergency; and b) wherein determining theemergency category is based at least in part on the emergencyinformation received through the interface of the electronic device andat least in part on the nature of the emergency. In some embodiments,the nature of the emergency is one of medical, fire, or police. In someembodiments, the emergency alert comprises the nature of the emergency.In some embodiments, the steps further comprise: a) gathering emergencydata; and b) wherein the nature of the emergency is determined using theemergency data. In some embodiments, the emergency data comprises atleast one of sensor data, environmental data, health data, or medicalhistory. In some embodiments, the emergency data is gathered fromsensors integrated into the electronic device. In some embodiments, theemergency data is gathered from an emergency data database. In someembodiments, the emergency data is gathered from a second electronicdevice associated with a user of the electronic device. In someembodiments, the emergency data is gathered from a second electronicdevice communicatively coupled to the electronic device. In someembodiments, the second electronic device is one of a smartphone, awearable device, an IoT device, or a vehicle. In some embodiments, thesteps further comprise: a) accessing a decision tree for safetyrecommendations; and b) stepping through the decision tree using theemergency information received through the interface of the electronicdevice to determine the emergency category. In some embodiments, thesteps further comprise: a) determining a nature of the emergency; and b)wherein the decision tree is accessed based on the nature of theemergency. In some embodiments, each step of the decision tree points toa corresponding safety recommendation within the safety recommendationdatabase. In some embodiments, the steps further comprise: a) initiatingan autonomous communication session with a user of the electronicdevice; b) posing questions to the user through the emergency assistantapplication; c) wherein receiving the emergency information from theelectronic device further comprises receiving responses to the questionsposed through the emergency assistant application during the autonomouscommunication session; and d) wherein each response received from theuser during the autonomous communication session moves the emergencymanagement system one step forward on the decision tree. In someembodiments, the questions posed through the emergency assistantapplication are limited to a predetermined number of questions. In someembodiments, the predetermined number of questions is two. In someembodiments, one of the questions posed to the user through theemergency assistant application prompts the user to identify anafflicted body part. In some embodiments, the steps further comprisereceiving a verbal response from the user identifying the afflicted bodypart. In some embodiments, the steps further comprise: a) providing avirtual body diagram through the interface of the electronic device; andb) receiving a response identifying the afflicted body part, from theuser, through the virtual body diagram provided through the interface ofthe electronic device.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a method for coordinatingemergency response by an emergency management system, the methodcomprising: a) receiving an emergency alert associated with an emergencyfrom an electronic device; b) gathering emergency data associated withthe emergency alert; c) determining a nature of the emergency; d) basedat least in part on the emergency data, determining a severity index forthe emergency; e) based at least in part on the nature of the emergencyand the severity index, generating a dispatch recommendation for theemergency; and f) providing the dispatch recommendation to an emergencyservice provider (ESP) personnel. In some embodiments, gatheringemergency data associated with the emergency alert further comprisesproviding an emergency assistant application through an interface of theelectronic device configured to obtain user input through the interface.In some embodiments, the method further comprises: a) initiating anautonomous communication session with a user of the electronic device;b) posing questions to the user through the emergency assistantapplication; and c) receiving emergency information obtained through theinterface of the electronic device, wherein the emergency informationcomprises responses to questions posed through the emergency assistantapplication during the autonomous communication session. In someembodiments, posing questions to the user through the emergencyassistant application further comprises asking the user for a nature ofthe emergency. In some embodiments, posing questions to the user throughthe emergency assistant application further comprises asking the user ifa person involved in the emergency needs immediate emergency assistance.In some embodiments, posing questions to the user through the emergencyassistant application further comprises asking the user if the emergencyinvolves a life-threatening danger. In some embodiments, posingquestions to the user through the emergency assistant applicationfurther comprises asking the user how many people are involved in theemergency. In some embodiments, the nature of the emergency comprises anature or type of the emergency. In some embodiments, the emergency dataassociated with the emergency alert comprises audio or video; and b)wherein determining the nature of the emergency further comprisesprocessing the audio or video for audio or visual cues. In someembodiments: a) the emergency data associated with the emergency alertcomprises audio or video; and b) determining the severity index for theemergency further comprises processing the audio or video for audio orvisual cues. In some embodiments, processing the audio or video foraudio or visual cues further comprises using voice recognition or facerecognition techniques to identify unique persons from the audio orvideo. In some embodiments, the audio cues comprise key words. In someembodiments, the audio cues comprise volume level. In some embodiments,the audio cues comprise unique voices. In some embodiments, the visualcues comprise at least one of light intensity, activity, objects, orpeople. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: a) comparingan audio or visual cue to a threshold value; and b) discarding the audioor visual cue if the audio or visual cue fails to exceed the thresholdvalue. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: a) comparingan audio or visual cue to a threshold value; b) in response to the audioor visual cue exceeding the threshold value, counting the audio orvisual cue toward the severity index; and c) in response to the audio orvisual cue failing to exceed the threshold value, discarding the audioor visual cue. In some embodiments, the severity index is a quantizedvalue. In some embodiments, the severity index is a qualitative level.In some embodiments, the qualitative level is one of low, medium, andhigh. In some embodiments, the qualitative level is one of low and high.In some embodiments, the method further comprises a) processing theemergency data associated with the emergency alert to determine a numberof persons involved in the emergency; and b) wherein the severity indexis determined based at least in part on the number of persons involvedin the emergency. In some embodiments: a) the severity index is aqualitative level; b) the qualitative level is one of low and high; andc) the severity index is determined to be high in response to the numberof persons involved in the emergency equaling or exceeding two persons.In some embodiments: a) gathering emergency data associated with theemergency alert further comprises: i) providing an emergency assistantapplication through an interface of the electronic device; ii)initiating an autonomous communication session with a user of theelectronic device; iii) posing questions to the user through theemergency assistant application; iv) receiving responses to questionsposed through the emergency assistant application during the autonomouscommunication session; and b) wherein the severity index is aqualitative level; and c) wherein the qualitative level is one of lowand high. In some embodiments, the severity index is determined to behigh in response to receiving a response to a question posed through theemergency assistant application indicating that a person involved in theemergency needs immediate emergency assistance. In some embodiments, theseverity index is determined to be high at least partially in responseto receiving a response to a question posed through the emergencyassistant application indicating that the emergency involves alife-threatening danger. In some embodiments, the severity index isdetermined to be high at least partially in response to receiving aresponse to a question posed through the emergency assistant applicationindicating that a number of persons involved in the emergency equals orexceeds two persons. In some embodiments, the dispatch recommendationcomprises at least one type of emergency response unit and at least onenumber of the at least one type of emergency response unit. In someembodiments, generating the dispatch recommendation further comprisesaccessing a dispatch protocol comprising a list of dispatchrecommendations, wherein each combination of nature of emergency andseverity index corresponds to a particular dispatch recommendation onthe list of dispatch recommendations. In some embodiments, the nature ofthe emergency is comprised within the emergency alert. In someembodiments, the nature of the emergency is determined using theemergency data associated with the emergency alert. In some embodiments,the emergency data associated with the emergency alert comprises atleast one of health data, sensor data, environmental data, audio, video,and medical history. In some embodiments, the emergency data associatedwith the emergency alert is gathered from the electronic device. In someembodiments, the emergency data associated with the emergency alert isgathered from a second electronic device communicatively coupled to theelectronic device. In some embodiments: a) the emergency alert isassociated with a user account; and b) the emergency data associatedwith the emergency alert is gathered from a second electronic deviceassociated with the user account. In some embodiments, the emergencydata associated with the emergency alert is gathered from an emergencydata database. In some embodiments, the emergency alert is generated bythe electronic device. In some embodiments, the emergency alert isgenerated by a second electronic device communicatively coupled to theelectronic device in response to detecting an emergency. In someembodiments: a) the electronic device is a sensor device; and b) theemergency alert is automatically generated by the sensor device inresponse to detecting an emergency based on sensor data gathered by thesensor device. In some embodiments: a) the electronic device is anintelligent vehicle system; and b) the emergency alert is automaticallygenerated by the intelligent vehicle system in response to detecting anemergency based on sensor data gathered by the intelligent vehiclesystem. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: a)identifying a location of the emergency using the emergency alert; andb) generating a dispatch recommendation for the emergency based at leastin part on the nature of the emergency, the severity index, and thelocation. In some embodiments, the location of the emergency iscomprised within the emergency alert. In some embodiments, the methodfurther comprises: a) identifying a location of the emergency using theemergency alert; and b) generating a dispatch recommendation for theemergency based at least in part on the nature of the emergency, theseverity index, and the location; and c) wherein generating the dispatchrecommendation further comprises: i) accessing a responder informationdatabase; ii) identifying one or more emergency service providers in thevicinity of the location of the emergency; and iii) determining thetypes, capabilities, or availabilities of emergency response units fromthe one or more emergency service providers. In some embodiments, thedispatch recommendation further comprises directions from the one ormore emergency service providers to the location of the emergency. Insome embodiments, the method further comprises graphically displayingthe dispatch recommendation within a map on an ESP device. In someembodiments, the method further comprises generating an emergency reportfor the emergency. In some embodiments, the emergency report comprisesthe nature of the emergency, the severity index, and the dispatchrecommendation. In some embodiments, the method further comprises: a)identifying a location of the emergency; and b) wherein the emergencyreport comprises the nature of the emergency, the location of theemergency, the severity index, and the dispatch recommendation. In someembodiments, the emergency report comprises a transcription of theemergency data associated with the emergency alert. In some embodiments,the emergency report comprises a date and time of when the emergencyalert was received. In some embodiments, the method further comprises:a) receiving a notification when an emergency responder is dispatched tothe emergency; b) receiving a notification when the emergency responderarrives at the emergency; and c) wherein the emergency report comprisesthe nature of the emergency, the severity index, the dispatchrecommendation, a first date and time of when the emergency responderwas dispatched to the emergency, and a second date and time of when theemergency responder arrived at the emergency.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a method for coordinatingemergency response by an emergency management system, the methodcomprising: a) receiving an emergency alert associated with an emergencyfrom an electronic device; b) gathering emergency data associated withthe emergency alert; c) based at least in part on the emergency data,determining a dispatch category for the emergency; d) based at least inpart on the dispatch category, generating a dispatch recommendation forthe emergency; and e) providing the dispatch recommendation to anemergency service provider (ESP) personnel. In some embodiments,determining the dispatch category for the emergency based on theemergency data further comprises: a) accessing a decision tree fordispatch categories; and b) processing the emergency data using thedecision tree to identify the dispatch category for the emergency. Insome embodiments, the method further comprises: a) determining a natureof the emergency; and b) wherein the decision tree is accessed based onthe nature of the emergency. In some embodiments, the method furthercomprises determining the nature of the emergency using the emergencydata. In some embodiments, the nature of the emergency is comprisedwithin the emergency alert. In some embodiments, determining thedispatch category for the emergency based on the emergency data furthercomprises processing the emergency data using an emergency classifierconfigured to identify the dispatch category for the emergency. In someembodiments, determining the dispatch category for the emergency furthercomprises applying a machine learning algorithm to the emergency data todetermine the dispatch category. In some embodiments, the machinelearning algorithm is trained on a data set comprising test emergencydata sets and corresponding dispatch categories.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a method for coordinatingemergency response by an emergency management system, the methodcomprising: a) receiving an emergency alert associated with an emergencyfrom an electronic device; b) gathering emergency data associated withthe emergency alert; c) determining a dispatch card appropriate for theemergency, wherein the dispatch card comprises a set of questionsregarding the emergency and a set of dispatch options based on answersto the set of questions; d) answering one or more questions within theset of questions regarding the emergency comprised by the dispatch cardusing the emergency data associated with the emergency alert; e) basedat least in part on the one or more questions answered using theemergency data associated with the emergency alert and the set ofdispatch options comprised by the dispatch card, generating a dispatchrecommendation for the emergency; and f) providing the dispatchrecommendation to an emergency service provider (ESP) personnel. In someembodiments, determining the dispatch card appropriate for the emergencyfurther comprises receiving selection of the dispatch card from the ESPpersonnel. In some embodiments, determining the dispatch cardappropriate for the emergency further comprises: a) providing anemergency assistant application through an interface of the electronicdevice; b) initiating an autonomous communication session with a user ofthe electronic device through the emergency assistant application; c)posing questions to the user through emergency assistant applicationduring the autonomous communication session; d) receiving emergencyinformation obtained through the interface of the electronic device inthe form of responses from the user to the questions posed through theemergency assistant during the autonomous communication session; and e)determining the dispatch card appropriate for the emergency based atleast in part on the emergency information received through theemergency assistant. In some embodiments, the method further comprises:a) identifying a location of the emergency using the emergency alert;and b) generating the dispatch recommendation based at least in part onthe one or more questions answered using the emergency data, the set ofdispatch options comprised by the dispatch card, and the location of theemergency. In some embodiments, the dispatch card is selected from aplurality of different dispatch cards associated with different types ofemergencies.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a system for coordinatingemergency response by an emergency management system, the systemcomprising: a) an electronic device; b) a network server comprising atleast one processor; and c) an emergency management system executed onthe at least one processor and configured to: i) receive an emergencyalert associated with an emergency from an electronic device; ii) gatheremergency data associated with the emergency alert; iii) determine anature of the emergency; iv) based at least in part on the emergencydata, determine a severity index for the emergency; v) based at least inpart on the nature of the emergency and the severity index, generate adispatch recommendation for the emergency; and vi) transmit the dispatchrecommendation to an emergency service provider (ESP) personnel. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured togather emergency data associated with the emergency alert by providingan emergency assistant application through an interface of theelectronic device configured to obtain user input through the interface.In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to: a) initiate an autonomous communication session with auser of the electronic device; b) pose questions to the user through theemergency assistant application; and c) receive emergency informationobtained through the interface of the electronic device, wherein theemergency information comprises responses to questions posed through theemergency assistant application during the autonomous communicationsession. In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to pose questions to the user through the emergency assistantapplication by asking the user for a nature of the emergency. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured topose questions to the user through the emergency assistant applicationby asking the user if a person involved in the emergency needs immediateemergency assistance. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is further configured to pose questions to the user through theemergency assistant application by asking the user if the emergencyinvolves a life-threatening danger. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system is further configured to pose questions to the userthrough the emergency assistant application by asking the user how manypeople are involved in the emergency. In some embodiments, the nature ofthe emergency comprises a nature or type of the emergency. In someembodiments: a) the emergency data associated with the emergency alertcomprises audio or video; and b) the emergency management system isfurther configured to determine the nature of the emergency further byprocessing the audio or video for audio or visual cues. In someembodiments: a) the emergency data associated with the emergency alertcomprises audio or video; and b) the emergency management system isfurther configured to determine the severity index for the emergencyfurther by processing the audio or video for audio or visual cues. Insome embodiments, the emergency management system is further configuredto process the audio or visual cues by using voice recognition or facerecognition techniques to identify unique persons from the audio orvideo. In some embodiments, the audio cues comprise key words. In someembodiments, the audio cues comprise volume level. In some embodiments,the audio cues comprise unique voices. In some embodiments, the visualcues comprise at least one of light intensity, activity, objects, orpeople. In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to: a) compare an audio or visual cue to a threshold value;and b) discard the audio or visual cue if the audio or visual cue failsto exceed the threshold value. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system is further configured to: a) comparing an audio orvisual cue to a threshold value; b) in response to the audio or visualcue exceeding the threshold value, counting the audio or visual cuetoward the severity index; and c) in response to the audio or visual cuefailing to exceed the threshold value, discarding the audio or visualcue. In some embodiments, the severity index is a quantized value. Insome embodiments, the severity index is a qualitative level. In someembodiments, the qualitative level is one of low, medium, and high. Insome embodiments, the qualitative level is one of low and high. In someembodiments: a) the emergency management system is further configured toprocess the emergency data associated with the emergency alert todetermine a number of persons involved in the emergency; and b) theseverity index is determined based at least in part on the number ofpersons involved in the emergency. In some embodiments: a) the severityindex is a qualitative level; b) wherein the qualitative level is one oflow and high; c) the severity index is determined to be high in responseto the number of persons involved in the emergency equaling or exceedingtwo persons. In some embodiments: a) the emergency management system isfurther configured to gather emergency data associated with theemergency alert by: i) providing an emergency assistant applicationthrough an interface of the electronic device; ii) initiating anautonomous communication session with a user of the electronic device;iii) posing questions to the user through the emergency assistantapplication; iv) receiving responses to questions posed through theemergency assistant application during the autonomous communicationsession; and b) wherein the severity index is a qualitative level; andc) wherein the qualitative level is one of low and high. In someembodiments, the severity index is determined to be high in response toreceiving a response to a question posed through the emergency assistantapplication indicating that a person involved in the emergency needsimmediate emergency assistance. In some embodiments, the severity indexis determined to be high at least partially in response to receiving aresponse to a question posed through the emergency assistant applicationindicating that the emergency involves a life-threatening danger. Insome embodiments, the severity index is determined to be high at leastpartially in response to receiving a response to a question posedthrough the emergency assistant application indicating that a number ofpersons involved in the emergency equals or exceeds two persons. In someembodiments, the dispatch recommendation comprises at least one type ofemergency response unit and at least one number of the at least one typeof emergency response unit. In some embodiments, generating the dispatchrecommendation further comprises accessing a dispatch protocolcomprising a list of dispatch recommendations, wherein each combinationof nature of emergency and severity index corresponds to a particulardispatch recommendation on the list of dispatch recommendations. In someembodiments, the nature of the emergency is comprised within theemergency alert. In some embodiments, the nature of the emergency isdetermined using the emergency data associated with the emergency alert.In some embodiments, the emergency data associated with the emergencyalert comprises at least one of health data, sensor data, environmentaldata, audio, video, and medical history. In some embodiments, theemergency data associated with the emergency alert is gathered from theelectronic device. In some embodiments, the emergency data associatedwith the emergency alert is gathered from a second electronic devicecommunicatively coupled to the electronic device. In some embodiments:a) the emergency alert is associated with a user account; and b) theemergency data associated with the emergency alert is gathered from asecond electronic device associated with the user account. In someembodiments, the emergency data associated with the emergency alert isgathered from an emergency data database. In some embodiments, theemergency alert is generated by the electronic device. In someembodiments, the emergency alert is generated by a second electronicdevice communicatively coupled to the electronic device in response todetecting an emergency. In some embodiments: a) the electronic device isa sensor device; and b) the emergency alert is automatically generatedby the sensor device in response to detecting an emergency based onsensor data gathered by the sensor device. In some embodiments: a) theelectronic device is an intelligent vehicle system; and b) the emergencyalert is automatically generated by the intelligent vehicle system inresponse to detecting an emergency based on sensor data gathered by theintelligent vehicle system. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system is further configured for: a) identifying a locationof the emergency using the emergency alert; and b) generating a dispatchrecommendation for the emergency based at least in part on the nature ofthe emergency, the severity index, and the location. In someembodiments, the location of the emergency is comprised within theemergency alert. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to: a) identify a location of the emergency using theemergency alert; b) generate a dispatch recommendation for the emergencybased at least in part on the nature of the emergency, the severityindex, and the location; c) access a responder information database; d)identify one or more emergency service providers in the vicinity of thelocation of the emergency; and e) determine the types, capabilities, oravailabilities of emergency response units from the one or moreemergency service providers. In some embodiments, the dispatchrecommendation further comprises directions from the one or moreemergency service providers to the location of the emergency. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured tographically display the dispatch recommendation within a map on an ESPdevice. In some embodiments, the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to generate an emergency report for the emergency. In someembodiments, the emergency report comprises the nature of the emergency,the severity index, and the dispatch recommendation. In someembodiments: a) the emergency management system is further configured toidentify a location of the emergency; and b) the emergency reportcomprises the nature of the emergency, the location of the emergency,the severity index, and the dispatch recommendation. In someembodiments, the emergency report comprises a transcription of theemergency data associated with the emergency alert. In some embodiments,the emergency report comprises a date and time of when the emergencyalert was received. In some embodiments: a) the emergency managementsystem is further configured to: i) receive a notification when anemergency responder is dispatched to the emergency; and ii) receive anotification when the emergency responder arrives at the emergency; andb) wherein the emergency report comprises the nature of the emergency,the severity index, the dispatch recommendation, a first date and timeof when the emergency responder was dispatched to the emergency, and asecond date and time of when the emergency responder arrived at theemergency.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a system for coordinatingemergency response by an emergency management system, the systemcomprising: a) an electronic device; b) a network server comprising atleast one processor; and c) an emergency management system executed onthe at least one processor and configured to: i) receive an emergencyalert associated with an emergency from an electronic device; ii) gatheremergency data associated with the emergency alert; iii) based at leastin part on the emergency data, determine a dispatch category for theemergency; iv) based at least in part on the dispatch category, generatea dispatch recommendation for the emergency; and v) transmit thedispatch recommendation to an emergency service provider (ESP)personnel. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to determine the dispatch category for the emergencybased on the emergency data by: a) accessing a decision tree fordispatch categories; and b) processing the emergency data using thedecision tree to identify the dispatch category for the emergency. Insome embodiments: a) the emergency management system is furtherconfigured to determine a nature of the emergency; and b) the decisiontree is accessed based on the nature of the emergency. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured todetermining the nature of the emergency using the emergency data. Insome embodiments, the nature of the emergency is comprised within theemergency alert. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to determine the dispatch category for the emergencybased on the emergency data by processing the emergency data using anemergency classifier configured to identify the dispatch category forthe emergency. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to determine the dispatch category for the emergencybased on the emergency data by applying a machine learning algorithm tothe emergency data to determine the dispatch category. In someembodiments, the machine learning algorithm is trained on a data setcomprising test emergency data sets and corresponding dispatchcategories.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is a system for coordinatingemergency response by an emergency management system, the systemcomprising: a) an electronic device; b) a network server comprising atleast one processor; and c) an emergency management system executed onthe at least one processor and configured to: i) receive an emergencyalert associated with an emergency from an electronic device; ii) gatheremergency data associated with the emergency alert; iii) determine adispatch card appropriate for the emergency, wherein the dispatch cardcomprises a set of questions regarding the emergency and a set ofdispatch options based on answers to the set of questions; iv) answerone or more questions within the set of questions regarding theemergency comprised by the dispatch card using the emergency dataassociated with the emergency alert; v) based at least in part on theone or more questions answered using the emergency data associated withthe emergency alert and the set of dispatch options comprised by thedispatch card, generate a dispatch recommendation for the emergency; andvi) transmit the dispatch recommendation to an emergency serviceprovider (ESP) personnel. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem is further configured to determine the dispatch card appropriatefor the emergency by receiving selection of the dispatch card from theESP personnel. In some embodiments, the emergency management system isfurther configured to determine the dispatch card appropriate for theemergency by: a) providing an emergency assistant application through aninterface of the electronic device; b) initiating an autonomouscommunication session with a user of the electronic device through theemergency assistant application; c) posing questions to the user throughemergency assistant application during the autonomous communicationsession; d) receiving emergency information obtained through theinterface of the electronic device in the form of responses from theuser to the questions posed through the emergency assistant during theautonomous communication session; and e) determining the dispatch cardappropriate for the emergency based at least in part on the emergencyinformation received through the emergency assistant. In someembodiments, the emergency management system is further configured to:a) identify a location of the emergency using the emergency alert; andb) generate the dispatch recommendation based at least in part on theone or more questions answered using the emergency data, the set ofdispatch options comprised by the dispatch card, and the location of theemergency. In some embodiments, the dispatch card is selected from aplurality of different dispatch cards associated with different types ofemergencies.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is non-transitory computer readablestorage media encoded with at least one computer program includinginstructions executable by at least one processor to perform stepscomprising: a) receiving an emergency alert associated with an emergencyfrom an electronic device; b) gathering emergency data associated withthe emergency alert; c) determining a nature of the emergency; d) basedat least in part on the emergency data, determining a severity index forthe emergency; e) based at least in part on the nature of the emergencyand the severity index, generating a dispatch recommendation for theemergency; and f) providing the dispatch recommendation to an emergencyservice provider (ESP) personnel. In some embodiments, gatheringemergency data associated with the emergency alert further comprisesproviding an emergency assistant application through an interface of theelectronic device configured to obtain user input through the interface.In some embodiments, the steps further comprise: a) initiating anautonomous communication session with a user of the electronic device;b) posing questions to the user through the emergency assistantapplication; and c) receiving emergency information obtained through theinterface of the electronic device, wherein the emergency informationcomprises responses to questions posed through the emergency assistantapplication during the autonomous communication session. In someembodiments, posing questions to the user through the emergencyassistant application further comprises asking the user for a nature ofthe emergency. In some embodiments, posing questions to the user throughthe emergency assistant application further comprises asking the user ifa person involved in the emergency needs immediate emergency assistance.In some embodiments, posing questions to the user through the emergencyassistant application further comprises asking the user if the emergencyinvolves a life-threatening danger. In some embodiments, posingquestions to the user through the emergency assistant applicationfurther comprises asking the user how many people are involved in theemergency. In some embodiments, the nature of the emergency comprises anature or type of the emergency. In some embodiments: a) the emergencydata associated with the emergency alert comprises audio or video; andb) determining the nature of the emergency further comprises processingthe audio or video for audio or visual cues. In some embodiments: a) theemergency data associated with the emergency alert comprises audio orvideo; and b) determining the severity index for the emergency furthercomprises processing the audio or video for audio or visual cues. Insome embodiments, processing the audio or video for audio or visual cuesfurther comprises using voice recognition or face recognition techniquesto identify unique persons from the audio or video. In some embodiments,the audio cues comprise key words. In some embodiments, the audio cuescomprise volume level. In some embodiments, the audio cues compriseunique voices. In some embodiments, the visual cues comprise at leastone of light intensity, activity, objects, or people. In someembodiments, the steps further comprise: a) comparing an audio or visualcue to a threshold value; and b) discarding the audio or visual cue ifthe audio or visual cue fails to exceed the threshold value. In someembodiments, the steps further comprise: a) comparing an audio or visualcue to a threshold value; b) in response to the audio or visual cueexceeding the threshold value, counting the audio or visual cue towardthe severity index; and c) in response to the audio or visual cuefailing to exceed the threshold value, discarding the audio or visualcue. In some embodiments, the severity index is a quantized value. Insome embodiments, the severity index is a qualitative level. In someembodiments, the qualitative level is one of low, medium, and high. Insome embodiments, the qualitative level is one of low and high. In someembodiments, the steps further comprise: a) processing the emergencydata associated with the emergency alert to determine a number ofpersons involved in the emergency; and b) wherein the severity index isdetermined based at least in part on the number of persons involved inthe emergency. In some embodiments: a) the severity index is aqualitative level; b) wherein the qualitative level is one of low andhigh; c) the severity index is determined to be high in response to thenumber of persons involved in the emergency equaling or exceeding twopersons. In some embodiments: a) gathering emergency data associatedwith the emergency alert further comprises: i) providing an emergencyassistant application through an interface of the electronic device; ii)initiating an autonomous communication session with a user of theelectronic device; iii) posing questions to the user through theemergency assistant application; iv) receiving responses to questionsposed through the emergency assistant application during the autonomouscommunication session; b) the severity index is a qualitative level; andc) the qualitative level is one of low and high. In some embodiments,the severity index is determined to be high in response to receiving aresponse to a question posed through the emergency assistant applicationindicating that a person involved in the emergency needs immediateemergency assistance. In some embodiments, the severity index isdetermined to be high at least partially in response to receiving aresponse to a question posed through the emergency assistant applicationindicating that the emergency involves a life-threatening danger. Insome embodiments, the severity index is determined to be high at leastpartially in response to receiving a response to a question posedthrough the emergency assistant application indicating that a number ofpersons involved in the emergency equals or exceeds two persons. In someembodiments, the dispatch recommendation comprises at least one type ofemergency response unit and at least one number of the at least one typeof emergency response unit. In some embodiments, generating the dispatchrecommendation further comprises accessing a dispatch protocolcomprising a list of dispatch recommendations, wherein each combinationof nature of emergency and severity index corresponds to a particulardispatch recommendation on the list of dispatch recommendations. In someembodiments, the nature of the emergency is comprised within theemergency alert. In some embodiments, the nature of the emergency isdetermined using the emergency data associated with the emergency alert.In some embodiments, the emergency data associated with the emergencyalert comprises at least one of health data, sensor data, environmentaldata, audio, video, and medical history. In some embodiments, theemergency data associated with the emergency alert is gathered from theelectronic device. In some embodiments, the emergency data associatedwith the emergency alert is gathered from a second electronic devicecommunicatively coupled to the electronic device. In some embodiments:a) the emergency alert is associated with a user account; and b) theemergency data associated with the emergency alert is gathered from asecond electronic device associated with the user account. In someembodiments, the emergency data associated with the emergency alert isgathered from an emergency data database. In some embodiments, theemergency alert is generated by the electronic device. In someembodiments, the emergency alert is generated by a second electronicdevice communicatively coupled to the electronic device in response todetecting an emergency. In some embodiments: a) the electronic device isa sensor device; and b) the emergency alert is automatically generatedby the sensor device in response to detecting an emergency based onsensor data gathered by the sensor device. In some embodiments: a) theelectronic device is an intelligent vehicle system; and b) the emergencyalert is automatically generated by the intelligent vehicle system inresponse to detecting an emergency based on sensor data gathered by theintelligent vehicle system. In some embodiments, the steps furthercomprise: a) identifying a location of the emergency using the emergencyalert; and b) generating a dispatch recommendation for the emergencybased at least in part on the nature of the emergency, the severityindex, and the location. In some embodiments, the location of theemergency is comprised within the emergency alert. In some embodiments,the steps further comprise: i) identifying a location of the emergencyusing the emergency alert; and ii) generating a dispatch recommendationfor the emergency based at least in part on the nature of the emergency,the severity index, and the location; and b) wherein generating thedispatch recommendation further comprises: i) accessing a responderinformation database; ii) identifying one or more emergency serviceproviders in the vicinity of the location of the emergency; and iii)determining the types, capabilities, or availabilities of emergencyresponse units from the one or more emergency service providers. In someembodiments, the dispatch recommendation further comprises directionsfrom the one or more emergency service providers to the location of theemergency. In some embodiments, the steps further comprise graphicallydisplaying the dispatch recommendation within a map on an ESP device. Insome embodiments, the steps further comprise generating an emergencyreport for the emergency. In some embodiments, the emergency reportcomprises the nature of the emergency, the severity index, and thedispatch recommendation. In some embodiments, the steps furthercomprise: a) identifying a location of the emergency; and b) wherein theemergency report comprises the nature of the emergency, the location ofthe emergency, the severity index, and the dispatch recommendation. Insome embodiments, the emergency report comprises a transcription of theemergency data associated with the emergency alert. In some embodiments,the emergency report comprises a date and time of when the emergencyalert was received. In some embodiments, the steps further comprise a)receiving a notification when an emergency responder is dispatched tothe emergency; b) further comprising receiving a notification when theemergency responder arrives at the emergency; and c) wherein theemergency report comprises the nature of the emergency, the severityindex, the dispatch recommendation, a first date and time of when theemergency responder was dispatched to the emergency, and a second dateand time of when the emergency responder arrived at the emergency.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is non-transitory computer readablestorage media encoded with at least one computer program includinginstructions executable by at least one processor to perform stepscomprising: a) receiving an emergency alert associated with an emergencyfrom an electronic device; b) gathering emergency data associated withthe emergency alert; c) based at least in part on the emergency data,determining a dispatch category for the emergency; d) based at least inpart on the dispatch category, generating a dispatch recommendation forthe emergency; and e) providing the dispatch recommendation to anemergency service provider (ESP) personnel. In some embodiments,determining the dispatch category for the emergency based on theemergency data further comprises: a) accessing a decision tree fordispatch categories; and b) processing the emergency data using thedecision tree to identify the dispatch category for the emergency. Insome embodiments, the steps further comprise: a) determining a nature ofthe emergency; and b) wherein the decision tree is accessed based on thenature of the emergency. In some embodiments, the steps further comprisedetermining the nature of the emergency using the emergency data. Insome embodiments, the nature of the emergency is comprised within theemergency alert. In some embodiments, determining the dispatch categoryfor the emergency based on the emergency data further comprisesprocessing the emergency data using an emergency classifier configuredto identify the dispatch category for the emergency. In someembodiments, determining the dispatch category for the emergency furthercomprises applying a machine learning algorithm to the emergency data todetermine the dispatch category. In some embodiments, the machinelearning algorithm is trained on a data set comprising test emergencydata sets and corresponding dispatch categories.

In another aspect, disclosed herein is non-transitory computer readablestorage media encoded with at least one computer program includinginstructions executable by at least one processor to perform stepscomprising: a) receiving an emergency alert associated with an emergencyfrom an electronic device; b) gathering emergency data associated withthe emergency alert; c) determining a dispatch card appropriate for theemergency, wherein the dispatch card comprises a set of questionsregarding the emergency and a set of dispatch options based on answersto the set of questions; d) answering one or more questions within theset of questions regarding the emergency comprised by the dispatch cardusing the emergency data associated with the emergency alert; e) basedat least in part on the one or more questions answered using theemergency data associated with the emergency alert and the set ofdispatch options comprised by the dispatch card, generating a dispatchrecommendation for the emergency; and f) providing the dispatchrecommendation to an emergency service provider (ESP) personnel. In someembodiments, determining the dispatch card appropriate for the emergencyfurther comprises receiving selection of the dispatch card from the ESPpersonnel. In some embodiments, determining the dispatch cardappropriate for the emergency further comprises: a) providing anemergency assistant application through an interface of the electronicdevice; b) initiating an autonomous communication session with a user ofthe electronic device through the emergency assistant application; c)posing questions to the user through emergency assistant applicationduring the autonomous communication session; d) receiving emergencyinformation obtained through the interface of the electronic device inthe form of responses from the user to the questions posed through theemergency assistant during the autonomous communication session; and e)determining the dispatch card appropriate for the emergency based atleast in part on the emergency information received through theemergency assistant. In some embodiments, the steps further comprise: a)identifying a location of the emergency using the emergency alert; andb) generating the dispatch recommendation based at least in part on theone or more questions answered using the emergency data, the set ofdispatch options comprised by the dispatch card, and the location of theemergency. In some embodiments, the dispatch card is selected from aplurality of different dispatch cards associated with different types ofemergencies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity inthe appended claims. A better understanding of the features andadvantages of the present disclosure will be obtained by reference tothe following detailed description that sets forth illustrativeembodiments, in which the principles of the invention are utilized, andthe accompanying drawings of which:

FIGS. 1A and 1B depict diagrams of (i) an electronic device, (ii) anemergency management system (EMS), (iii) an emergency service provider(ESP) system, and (iv) ESP software in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts a non-limiting example of a system for facilitatingemergency communications during an emergency by an emergency managementsystem in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a non-limiting example of an emergency responsemessage and autonomous communication session in accordance with thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates a non-limiting example of an emergency responsemessage and autonomous communication session in accordance with thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates a non-limiting example of an autonomous communicationsession in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a non-limiting example of an autonomous communicationsession in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B illustrate a non-limiting example of an emergencyresponse application in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts a non-limiting example of a system for facilitatingemergency communications during an emergency by an emergency managementsystem in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 depicts a non-limiting example of a system for detecting one ormore social media posts indicative of an emergency in accordance withthe present disclosure;

FIGS. 10A and 10B depict diagrams of (i) an electronic device, (ii) anemergency management system, (iii) an emergency service provider (ESP)system, and (iv) ESP software in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates a non-limiting example of an emergency assistantapplication in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B illustrate non-limiting examples of an emergencyassistant application implemented on various electronic devices inaccordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 illustrates a non-limiting example of an emergency assistantapplication in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 depicts a non-limiting example of a decision tree in accordancewith the present disclosure;

FIG. 15 illustrates non-limiting implementations of a safetyrecommendation in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIGS. 16A and 16B depict diagrams of (i) an electronic device, (ii) anemergency management system, (iii) an emergency service provider (ESP)system, and (iv) ESP software in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 17 depicts a non-limiting example of a system for coordinatingemergency response by an emergency management system in accordance withthe present disclosure;

FIG. 18 illustrates a non-limiting example of an emergency data analysisscenario in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 19 illustrates a non-limiting example of an emergency data analysisscenario in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 20 illustrates a non-limiting example of an emergency data analysisscenario in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 21 illustrates a non-limiting example of an embodiment of adispatch recommendation in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 22 depicts a non-limiting example of a dispatch card in accordancewith the present disclosure;

FIG. 23A and FIG. 23B depict a non-limiting example of a table ofdispatch cards and emergency data types in accordance with the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 24 depicts a non-limiting example of an emergency report inaccordance with the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Electronic Device, Emergency Management System, and Emergency ServiceProvider (ESP)

In certain embodiments, disclosed herein are devices, systems, andmethods for managing emergency data for emergency response. FIG. 1Adepicts diagrams of (i) an electronic device 110 and (ii) an emergencymanagement system (EMS) 120 in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In some embodiments, the electronic device 110 is adigital processing device such as a communication device (e.g., mobileor cellular phone, computer, laptop, etc.). In some embodiments, theelectronic device is a wearable device (e.g., a smartwatch). In someembodiments, the electronic device is an Internet of Things (IoT)device, such as a home assistant (e.g., an Amazon Echo) or a connectedsmoke detector (e.g., a Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm).In some embodiments, the electronic device is a walkie-talkie or two-wayradio.

In some embodiments, the electronic device 110 includes a display 111, aprocessor 112, a memory 113 (e.g., an EPROM memory, a RAM, or asolid-state memory), and several optional components such as one or morenetwork component(s) 114 (e.g., an antenna and associated components,Wi-Fi adapters, Bluetooth adapters, etc.), a data storage 115, a userinterface 116, a computer program such as an emergency alert program117, one or more location components 118, and one or more sensors 119.In some embodiments, the processor 112 is implemented as one or moremicroprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signalprocessors, central processing units, state machines, logic circuitries,and/or devices that manipulate signals based on operationalinstructions. Among other capabilities, the processor 112 is configuredto fetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory113.

In some embodiments, the display 111 is part of the user interface 116(e.g., a touchscreen is both a display and a user interface in that itprovides an interface to receive user input or user interactions). Insome embodiments, the user interface 116 includes physical buttons suchas an on/off button or volume buttons. In some embodiments, the display111 and/or the user interface 116 comprises a touchscreen (e.g., acapacitive touchscreen), which is capable of displaying information andreceiving user input. In some embodiments, the user interface 116 doesnot include a touchscreen, but comprises one or more physical buttonsand/or a microphone. In some embodiments, the display 111 does notinclude a touchscreen, but comprises one or more lights, indicators,and/or lighted buttons.

In some embodiments, the electronic device 110 includes variousaccessories that allow for additional functionality. In someembodiments, these accessories (not shown) include one or more of thefollowing: a microphone, a camera, speaker, a fingerprintscanner/reader, health or environmental sensors, a USB or micro-USBport, a headphone jack, a card reader, a SIM card slot, or anycombination thereof. In some embodiments, the one or more sensorsinclude, but are not limited to: a gyroscope, an accelerometer, athermometer, a heart rate sensor, a barometer, or a hematology analyzer.In some embodiments, the data storage 115 includes a location data cache115 a and a user data cache 115 b. In some embodiments, the locationdata cache 115 a is configured to store locations generated by the oneor more location components 118.

In some embodiments, the computer program 117 is an emergency responseapplication or emergency response mobile application. In someembodiments, the computer program 117 is configured to record user data,such as a name, address, or medical data of a user associated with theelectronic device 110. In some embodiments, the computer program 117 isan emergency alert program configured to detect an emergency from theelectronic device (e.g., when a user 100 (not shown) uses the electronicdevice 110 to make an emergency call). In some embodiments, the userinitiates the emergency alert by interacting with the user interface116. In some embodiments, the emergency is detected by one or moresensors (built in or peripheral to the device). In some embodiments, inresponse to detecting an emergency request for assistance (e.g., anative dial 9-1-1 call) generated or sent by the electronic device 110,the computer program is configured to deliver a notification to the EMS120. In some embodiments, the notification is an HTTP post containinginformation regarding the emergency request. In some embodiments, thenotification includes a location (e.g., a device-based hybrid location)generated by or for the electronic device 110. In some embodiments, inresponse to detecting an emergency request generated or sent by theelectronic device 110, the computer program is configured to deliveruser data to the emergency management system (EMS) 120. In someembodiments, the electronic device 110 additionally or alternativelyincludes a mobile application 151 (also referred to as a “mobile app”)configured to perform emergency response functions in response to anemergency alert (such as an emergency alert initiated by the emergencyalert program) or according to instructions from the EMS 120, asdescribed below.

In some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 1A, the emergency managementsystem (EMS) 120 includes an EMS operating system 124, an EMS CPU 126,an EMS memory unit 127, and an EMS communication element 128. In someembodiments, the EMS CPU 126 is implemented as one or moremicroprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signalprocessors, central processing units, state machines, logic circuitries,and/or devices that manipulate signals based on operationalinstructions. Among other capabilities, the EMS CPU 126 is configured tofetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in the EMSmemory unit 127. The EMS memory unit 127 optionally includes anycomputer-readable medium known in the art including, for example,volatile memory, such as static random-access memory (SRAM) and dynamicrandom-access memory (DRAM), and/or non-volatile memory, such asread-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable ROM, flash memories, harddisks, optical disks, and magnetic tapes. The EMS memory unit 127optionally includes modules, routines, programs, objects, components,data structures, etc., which perform particular tasks or implementparticular abstract data types. In some embodiments, the EMS 120includes one or more EMS databases 122 (such as sensor database 125),one or more servers 123, and an EMS communication element 128. In someembodiments, the EMS 120 includes an autonomous communication system 150configured to initiate and manage autonomous communication sessions withelectronic devices, as described below.

In some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 1B, an ESP is an emergencyservice provider (ESP) system 130 that includes one or more of a display131, a memory 138, a user interface 136, at least one central processingunit or processor 132, a network component 135, an audio system 134(e.g., microphone, speaker and/or a call-taking headset), and a computerprogram such as a ESP application or ESP program (software) 139. In someembodiments, the ESP application or program 139 comprises one or moresoftware modules 140. In some embodiments, the ESP system 130 comprisesa database of emergency responders 137, such as medical assets, policeassets, fire response assets, rescue assets, safety assets, etc.

In some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 1B, the ESP application orprogram 139 installed on an ESP system 130 includes at least onesoftware module 140, such as a call taking module 145 (e.g., a computeraided dispatch system), an ESP display module 146, a supplemental orupdated information module 147, a feedback module 148 (for ESP users torequest specific type of data), or a combination thereof. In someembodiments, the ESP application 139 displays the information on a map(e.g., on the display 131). In some embodiments, location andsupplemental information is displayed for other emergency serviceproviders (e.g., police, fire, medical, etc.) and/or responders on theirrespective devices. It is contemplated that responder devices haveoptionally installed a responder device program (not shown) similar toESP display module 146. In some embodiments, the responder deviceprogram displays the emergency location on a map.

Autonomous Communication for Emergency Response

FIG. 2 depicts an embodiment of a system 200 for facilitating emergencycommunications during an emergency by an emergency management system inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the system includes an electronic device 210A, an emergencymanagement system (EMS) 220, an emergency service provider (ESP) 230(e.g., a public safety answering point (PSAP) or emergency dispatchcenter (EDC)), and one or more emergency responders 242. In someembodiments, the system additionally includes a group of electronicdevices 210B. As mentioned above, in some embodiments, when theemergency management system 220 identifies one or more users at risk ofan emergency (such as by receiving an emergency alert in response to a9-1-1 call dialed on a mobile phone in the United States), the emergencymanagement system 220 initiates an autonomous communication session withone or more communication devices 210 (e.g., the electronic device 210Aor the group of electronic devices 210B) through which users of thecommunication devices 210 can submit critical information regardingtheir emergencies. Through the autonomous communication session, the EMS220 can gather emergency information regarding the emergency, asdescribed below. The EMS 220 can then transmit the emergency informationgathered through the autonomous communication session to an emergencyservice provider (ESP) 230, such as a public safety answering point(PSAP) or an emergency dispatch center (EDC).

The EMS 220 can identify a user at risk of an emergency in numerousways. For example, in some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 2, anelectronic device 210 can generate and/or transmit an emergency alert tothe EMS 220. In such an embodiment, the EMS can identify a user at riskof an emergency using the emergency alert. In some embodiments, anelectronic device 210 generates and transmits an emergency alert to theEMS 220 in response to an emergency call (e.g., 9-1-1) being made fromthe electronic device 210. In some embodiments, the emergency alertincludes a location of the electronic device 210. In some embodiments,the electronic device 210 that generates and/or transmits the emergencyalert to the EMS 220 is not a communication device. For example, theelectronic device 210 may be a wearable device with no communicationelements or an IoT device with no communication elements. In someembodiments, the emergency management system 220 receives an emergencyalert from other sources other than an electronic device 210. Forexample, in some embodiments, the emergency management system 220receives an emergency alert indicating that a group emergency (anemergency affecting a large number of people, such as a flash flood,hurricane, or wildfire) has occurred. In some embodiments, a groupemergency may be a state of emergency declared by a government official.For example, in the case of a wildfire, a government official may issuean evacuation order for people within a certain vicinity of thewildfire. In some embodiments, the EMS 220 can then detect and identifythe evacuation order as an emergency alert. In response to detecting theevacuation order (e.g., the emergency alert), the EMS 220 can identifycommunication devices located within the vicinity (e.g., 50 miles) ofthe wildfire and initiate autonomous communication sessions with thosecommunication devices. In some embodiments, an electronic device (e.g.,a communication device) is determined to be associated with a user byquerying a database with identifying information for the electronicdevice, wherein the database is configured to store user profiles linkedto associated electronic devices.

In some embodiments, the EMS 220 can identify a user at risk of anemergency by identifying or detecting an emergency response anomaly.Emergency response anomalies can exist in various forms. For example,the EMS 220 can detect an emergency response anomaly if the EMS 220receives significantly more or significantly fewer emergency alerts thanaverage for a particular period of time. Or, for example, the EMS 220can detect an emergency response anomaly if an emergency alert is notresponded to. In some embodiments, the EMS 220 can detect an emergencyresponse anomaly based on anomalous or missing data included in anemergency alert. For example, in some embodiments, after an emergencycall is made from an electronic device 210, the electronic device 210can send an emergency alert to the EMS 220 (as described above)including an indication of whether or not the emergency call wasreceived or answered by an ESP 230. In such an embodiment, the EMS 220can detect an emergency response anomaly if the emergency alert includesan indication that the emergency call was not received or answered by anESP 230. In some embodiments, the EMS 220 can detect an emergencyresponse anomaly based on data or information received from athird-party source. However, the EMS 220 can detect an emergencyresponse anomaly in any other way.

For example, in some embodiments, the EMS 220 stores emergency datareceived from various sources (e.g., electronic devices communicativelycoupled to the EMS 220). During an emergency, a user of an electronicdevice can generate an emergency alert (as described above) that isreceived (along with any available emergency data, such as a location ofthe electronic device) by the EMS 220. An emergency service provider canthen query the EMS 220 for emergency data pertinent to the emergency. Insome embodiments, the EMS 220 detects a potential emergency responseanomaly if the EMS 220 receives an emergency alert associated with anemergency but does not receive a query for emergency data regarding theemergency. In some embodiments, when the EMS 220 receives an emergencyalert associated with an emergency and the emergency alert includes alocation of the electronic device that generated the emergency alert,the EMS 220 determines one or more ESPs appropriate to respond theemergency based on the location included in the emergency alert. In someembodiments, the EMS 220 can then detect a potential emergency responseanomaly if the EMS 220 does not receive a query for emergency dataregarding the emergency from the one or more ESPs determined to beappropriate for responding to the emergency. In some embodiments, theEMS 220 detects a potential emergency response anomaly if the EMS 220receives multiple emergency alerts including respective locations withina predetermined proximity and period of time but does not receivequeries for emergency data corresponding to the multiple emergencyalerts. In some embodiments, the EMS 220 detects a potential emergencyresponse anomaly if the EMS 220 receives multiple emergency alertsincluding respective locations for which the same one or more ESPs aredetermined to be appropriate for responding, but does not receivequeries for emergency data corresponding to the multiple emergencyalerts from the one or more ESPs. A potential emergency response anomalydetected by the EMS 220 could indicate that one or more ESPs areexperiencing technical or operational difficulties. For example, the EMS220 may not receive a query for emergency data from an ESP if the ESPhas lost power due to an electrical blackout. Or, for example, the EMS220 may not receive a query for emergency data from an ESP if the ESP isresponding to a mass emergency and is receiving more requests for helpthan the ESP is able to respond to. In response to detecting a potentialemergency response anomaly, the EMS 220 can initiate an autonomouscommunication session with an electronic device that generated anemergency alert for which no query for emergency data was received.

In some embodiments, the EMS 220 can identify a user at risk of anemergency using an electronic or digital communication from an emergencyservice provider (ESP) 230. For example, in some embodiments, an ESP 230(or a member of an ESP) can transmit a request to initiate an autonomouscommunication session (as described below) to the EMS 220 through anemergency response application (as described below). In someembodiments, the request includes an identifier of a user associatedwith the request (e.g., a phone number or email address) that the EMS220 can then use to identify the user associated with the request as auser at risk of an emergency. In some embodiments, the request is sentin response to an emergency call received by the ESP 230 being dropped,as described below. In some embodiments, the request is sent in responseto an emergency call made from an electronic device 210A not beingreceived by the ESP 230, as described below.

After identifying a user at risk of an emergency, the EMS 220 can theninitiate an autonomous communication session with a communication deviceassociated with the user. For example, in response to receiving anemergency alert, the EMS 220 can initiate an autonomous communicationsession with the electronic device 210 that generated and/or transmittedthe emergency alert to the EMS 220. In some embodiments, if theelectronic device 210 that generated and/or transmitted the emergencyalert to the EMS 220 is not a communication device, the EMS 220 canidentify a separate communication device associated with the electronicdevice 210 to initiate the autonomous communication session with. Forexample, if the electronic device 210 that generated and/or transmittedthe emergency alert to the EMS 220 is a wearable device lackingcommunication elements, the EMS 220 can identify a cell phonecommunicatively coupled to the wearable device (e.g., via Wi-Fi orBluetooth) or associated with the same user (e.g., the same useraccount, such as an email address) to initiate an autonomouscommunication session with. In some embodiments, the EMS 220 canadditionally or alternatively initiate an autonomous communicationsession with a group of communication devices 210B associated with userswho may be affected by the emergency. For example, in response todetecting an emergency at a particular location, the EMS 220 canidentify communication devices in the vicinity of the emergency (e.g.,within a one-mile radius from the particular location) and initiateautonomous communication sessions with the communication devicesidentified as in the vicinity of the emergency. In this way, the EMS 220can gather emergency information about the emergency from users directlyaffected by the emergency, as well as from bystanders, who may bevaluable sources of emergency information. Additionally, in this way,the EMS 220 can alert users who are not yet directly affected by theemergency but may potentially be in imminent danger.

FIG. 3 illustrates an emergency response prompt and autonomouscommunication session in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. In some embodiments, as mentioned above, the EMS, inresponse to identifying one or more users at risk of an emergency, caninitiate an autonomous communication session with one or morecommunication devices associated with the one or more users. In someembodiments, as depicted by FIG. 3, before initiating an autonomouscommunication session 303, the EMS seeks to obtain confirmation of theemergency by transmitting an emergency response prompt 301 to acommunication device 310. In some embodiments, the emergency responseprompt 301 is a push notification. After the emergency response prompt301 is transmitted to the communication device 310, a user of thecommunication device can confirm the emergency by confirming theemergency response prompt 301. For example, in an embodiment in whichthe emergency response prompt is a push notification, a user can confirmthe push notification by swiping the push notification or otherwiseselecting the push notification, such as by selecting the “Get Help”button 302 depicted in FIG. 3. Confirming the emergency response prompt301 transmits confirmation of the emergency to the EMS. In someembodiments, after receiving confirmation of the emergency, the EMS theninitiates the autonomous communication session 303.

In some embodiments, as depicted by FIG. 3, the EMS transmits one ormore messages 304 to the communication device 310 during the autonomouscommunication session 303. In some embodiments, the one or more messages304 are SMS text messages. In some embodiments, the EMS poses questionsto the user of the communication device through the one or more messages304. The EMS can then extract emergency information from the autonomouscommunication session in the form of answers from the user to thequestions posed through the communication device. For example, in someembodiments, the EMS can pose questions to the user of the communicationdevice regarding the user's location or the nature of the user'semergency. However, the EMS can pose a question of any nature to theuser through the autonomous communication session 303. In someembodiments, the messages 304 are transmitted to the communicationdevice 310 according to a predetermined script. For example, in someembodiments, the autonomous communication session 303 is preconfiguredto begin with two consecutive messages (as depicted by FIG. 3): 1) “Hi,this is 911 Bot.” and 2) “Is your current location [insert locationassociated with emergency alert]? Type “Yes” to confirm.” In thisexample, after receiving a response from the user, the autonomouscommunication session 303 may be preconfigured to continue by sending athird message to the user asking the user if the they are in alife-threatening situation, as depicted in FIG. 5. In some embodiments,the sequence of messages transmitted to the user during the autonomouscommunication session 303 is adapted dynamically based on responsesreceived from the user. For example, in some embodiments, if the userindicates that they are in a life-threatening situation, the autonomouscommunication session 303 may respond by prompting the user to find asafer environment, if possible. If the user indicates that they are notin a life-threatening situation, the autonomous communication session303 may respond by asking the user for more details regarding theemergency, as depicted in FIG. 5. In some embodiments, the predeterminedscript or sequence of messages is trained or generated using machinelearning algorithms, as described below.

FIG. 4 illustrates an emergency response prompt and autonomouscommunication session in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. As mentioned above with respect to FIG. 3, in someembodiments, the EMS, in response to detecting an emergency or apotential emergency, can initiate an autonomous communication sessionwith one or more communication devices. In some embodiments, as depictedby FIG. 4, the EMS can initiate an autonomous communication session 403with a communication device 410 by transmitting an emergency responseprompt 401 to the communication device 410. In some embodiments, theemergency response prompt 401 is an SMS text message. In someembodiments, the emergency response prompt 401 includes two or morediscrete messages. After the emergency response message 401 istransmitted to the communication device 410, a user of the communicationdevice can confirm the emergency by responding to or otherwiseinteracting with the emergency response prompt 401. For example, in anembodiment in which the emergency response prompt 401 is an SMS textmessage, a user can confirm the emergency by replying to the SMS textmessage with another SMS text message. For example, as depicted in FIG.4, the emergency response prompt 401 includes an SMS text message thatfrom 9-1-1 that reads “Is your current location 306 Hyde St., SanFrancisco, Calif.? Type “Yes” to confirm.” In this example, a user canopen the SMS text message and respond with an SMS text message that says“Yes.”

FIG. 5 illustrates an autonomous communication session in accordancewith one embodiment of the present disclosure. As mentioned above, insome embodiments, the EMS can initiate an autonomous communicationsession with a communication device in response to detecting anemergency or potential emergency and extract emergency information fromthe autonomous communication session. In some embodiments, the EMS caninitiate an autonomous communication session with a communication device510 by launching a mobile application 551 on the communication device510, as depicted by FIG. 5. In some embodiments, the EMS launches amobile application 551 through a web browser installed on thecommunication device 510. In some embodiments, the mobile application551 is previously installed on the communication device 510. In someembodiments, as depicted by FIG. 5, the mobile application 551 includesa graphical user interface. In some embodiments, the EMS poses questionsto the user of the communication device through the mobile application551. The EMS can then extract emergency information from the autonomouscommunication session in the form of answers from the user to thequestions posed through the mobile application 551. In some embodiments,the graphical user interface includes one or more soft buttons 506 forthe user to submit answers to questions posed by the EMS through themobile application 551. In some embodiments, the one or more softbuttons include a yes button and a no button 506A for the user torespond to yes or no questions. In some embodiments, the user can usethe one or more soft buttons to respond to multiple-choice questions.For example, as depicted in FIG. 5, the EMS poses the question “What isthe nature of your emergency?” through the graphical user interface andpresents four soft buttons 506B as options for response: Fire, Med(i.e., a medical emergency), Police, and Car (i.e., a vehicularemergency). In some embodiments, the graphical user interface includes atext entry field 506C for the user to submit free response responses toquestions posed by the EMS through the mobile application 551. In someembodiments, the EMS extracts emergency information from the autonomouscommunication session by parsing free response responses submitted bythe user during the autonomous communication session. Parsing freeresponse responses submitted by the user during the autonomouscommunication session may include parsing the responses for key words orphrases.

In some embodiments, the EMS can initiate an autonomous communicationsession with a communication device by delivering a voice call (e.g., aninteractive call) to the communication device. For example, in someembodiments, after detecting an emergency and identifying acommunication device associated with the emergency, the EMS candetermine a phone number associated with the communication device anddeliver an interactive call to the communication device using the phonenumber associated with the communication device. The EMS can thendeliver one or more emergency response messages as audio messages to thecommunication device through the interactive call, such as through aspeaker built into the communication device. In some embodiments, theaudio messages are generated using text-to-speech technology. In someembodiments, during an interactive call, a user can respond to one ormore emergency response messages from the EMS by verbally responding tothe one or more emergency response messages through the communicationdevice, such as through a microphone built into the communicationdevice. In some embodiments, verbal responses received from the userthrough a communication device during an interactive call are convertedinto text using speech-to-text technology. In some embodiments, a usercan respond to one or more emergency response messages from the EMS bypressing a button on the communication device (e.g., press 1 for yes,press 2 for no). In another example, the EMS can initiate an autonomouscommunication session with an IoT device (e.g., a smart speaker device,such as an Amazon Alexa) associated with a user at risk of an emergencyhaving communication elements (e.g., a speaker and a microphone) bydelivering a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) call to the IoT device.

In some embodiments, a user can submit multimedia (e.g., photos orvideos) pertaining to their emergency through the autonomouscommunication session. FIG. 6 illustrates a photo being submitted by auser to the EMS through the autonomous communication session. As shownin FIG. 6, in some embodiments, a user can submit a photo or video 608through a mobile application 651 launched on a communication device 610as part of an autonomous communication session. In some embodiments,during the autonomous communication session, the mobile application 651prompts the user to submit a photo or video 608 of their emergency, ifpossible. As shown in FIG. 6, in some embodiments, a user may take a newphoto or video 608B (e.g., by using a camera built into thecommunication device 610) or select an existing photo or video 608A froma library of photos and videos stored on or accessible by thecommunication device 610. In some embodiments, in which the autonomouscommunication session is conducted through a series of text messages (asdescribed above), a user can submit a photo or video to the EMS throughthe autonomous communication session by sending the photo or video in atext message response during the autonomous communication session.

As described above, in some embodiments, the components of the system200 (as depicted in FIG. 2) function to identify a user at risk of anemergency, initiate an autonomous communication session with acommunication device 210 associated with the user, extract emergencyinformation from the autonomous communication session, and transmit theemergency information to an emergency service provider (ESP) 230. Insome embodiments, after the emergency information is transmitted to theESP, the emergency information is then displayed within a graphical userinterface (GUI) of an emergency response application. FIGS. 7A and 7Billustrate an exemplary embodiment of an emergency response application760. In general, the emergency response application 760 functions toreceive emergency data or emergency information from one or more sources(e.g., the EMS) and display the emergency data or emergency informationwithin a GUI of the emergency response application 760. In someembodiments, the emergency response application 760 is a softwareprogram installed on a computing device at an emergency service provider(ESP). In some embodiments, the emergency response application 760 is aweb application accessed through a web browser installed on a computingdevice at an ESP. In some embodiments, the emergency responseapplication 760 is provided by the EMS. In some embodiments, theemergency response application 760 is not provided by the EMS but iscommunicatively coupled to the EMS. For example, in one embodiment, theemergency response application 760 is a computer aided dispatch (CAD)software program installed on a computing device at an ESP that receivesinformation regarding emergency calls received by the ESP and displaysthe information within a GUI. In another example, the emergency responseapplication 760 is a web application provided by the EMS that receivesand displays supplemental emergency information regarding emergencycalls received by the EMS (e.g., device-based hybrid locations,demographic information, health data, etc.).

Emergency response services such as PSAPs are often limited in thenumber of available personnel who can field emergency communications.Accordingly, in some embodiments, the emergency response applicationand/or the EMS triages an emergency. For example, in the case of anongoing home invasion, the emergency may be labeled as high priority andmoved to the top of a queue. Various relevant factors may be used toassess priority for purposes of triage. In some cases, the priority isbased at least on a severity or a severity index as disclosed herein.Such factors may include the type of emergency, severity or scope of theemergency, personal injuries, property damage, emergency location,proximity to available emergency response personnel or resources, andother relevant information. Some of these factors can be ascertained atleast partly using non-user input such as sensor or IoT data, forexample, smart doorbell or home security system. In some cases, thenon-user input data is obtained by querying third party databases thatthe EMS has authorization to access. Alternatively, or in combination,the non-user input data may be automatically pushed to the EMS or anassociated EMS database.

In some embodiments, emergency communications or alerts are assigned apriority based at least in part on information gathered via theautonomous communication sessions. The priority label can be selectivelyimplemented depending on the need for triage. For example, emergenciesmay be triaged by being placed in a queue in order of priority when aPSAP is overwhelmed with emergency communications or alerts (e.g., whenthere are not enough dispatchers to field the ongoing emergencycommunications or alerts). Alternatively, a triage step may not beimplemented if it is determined to be unnecessary. This decision totriage can be automated using one or more rules or algorithms. Forexample, triage may be implemented when the number of emergencycommunications exceeds the available dispatchers who can field thecommunications. In some embodiments, the decision to implement triage isbased on the volume of emergency communications exceeding a certainthreshold number or percentage above capacity, for example, 10% ofcurrent emergency communications being in queue due to insufficientoperators.

As illustrated in FIG. 7A, in some embodiments, the emergency responseapplication 760 includes a list of incidents 710 and an interactive map720. In some embodiments, the interactive map 720 displays avisualization of one or more jurisdictions 722 associated with the ESPat which the emergency response application 760 is being accessed. Insome embodiments, when the emergency response application 760 receivesemergency information regarding an emergency alert (e.g., an emergencycall) generated within the jurisdiction 722 associated with the ESP atwhich the emergency response application 760 is being accessed, theemergency response application 760 displays a location associated withthe emergency within the interactive map 720 as a location marker 724and an identifier associated with the emergency alert (e.g., a deviceidentifier, such as a phone number or email address associated with anelectronic device that generated the emergency alert) within the list ofincidents 710 as an incident 712. For example, in the exampleillustrated in FIG. 7A, the emergency response application 760 beingaccessed by this particular ESP shows five different incidents(incidents 712A-712E) occurring within the jurisdiction 722 of theparticular ESP, corresponding to five different location markers(location markers 724A-724E). In some embodiments, an incident 712 (orits corresponding location marker 724) can be selected to performadditional actions, such as receiving additional emergency data oremergency information regarding the emergency alert represented by theincident 712 or initiating an autonomous communication session with acommunication device associated with the emergency alert, as describedabove. In this example, incident 712C has been selected, and the deviceidentifier and time that the associated emergency alert was generated isshown above corresponding location marker 724C, accordingly.

As described above, in some embodiments, the EMS identifies a user atrisk of an emergency using an electronic or digital communication froman emergency service provider (ESP). In some embodiments, as illustratedin FIG. 7A, an ESP can transmit a digital communication to the EMS byselecting an incident 712 (or its corresponding location marker 724) andthen selecting a button (such as the Start ChatBot button 793A) toinitiate an autonomous communication session with an electronic deviceassociated with the identifier associated with the incident 712. In someembodiments, an incident 712 has a status 714 associated with theincident. For example, in some embodiments, an incident 712 can have astatus 714 of received/answered by the ESP (such as in the case ofincident 712A, indicated by the check mark), not received/not answeredby the ESP (such as in the case of incident 712B, indicated by the ‘X’mark), or dropped/disconnected (such as in the case of incident 712C,indicated by the question mark). A received/answered status may beconsidered a “positive” status, while a not received/not answered or adropped/disconnected status may be considered a “negative” status. Insome embodiments, the status 714 of an incident 712 is included in anemergency alert associated with the incident 712. In some embodiments,in response to detecting the status 714 (e.g., a “negative status”) ofan incident 712, the EMS or emergency response application 760 canprompt a user of the emergency response application 760 (e.g., a calltaker at a PSAP) to transmit a digital communication to the EMSidentifying a user at risk of an emergency by presenting the StartChatBot button 793A (i.e., a selectable option to initiate an autonomouscommunication session) within the GUI of the emergency responseapplication 760. For example, in some embodiments, the emergencyresponse application 760 presents the Start ChatBot 793A within the GUIof the emergency response application 760 in response to a user of theemergency response application 760 selecting an incident 712 that has astatus 714 of not received/not answered or dropped/disconnected. If theuser of the emergency response application 760 selects the Start ChatBotbutton 793A for a particular incident 712 (e.g., incident 712C, asillustrated in FIG. 7A), a digital communication is transmitted to theEMS that prompts the EMS to initiate an autonomous communication sessionwith a communication device associated with the device identifierassociated with the particular incident 712, as described above.

For example, in some embodiments, a method for facilitating emergencycommunications by an emergency management system (EMS) comprises: a)detecting a negative status of an emergency alert transmitted to anemergency service provider (ESP); b) presenting an option to initiate anautonomous communication session for the emergency alert within agraphical user interface (GUI) of an emergency response applicationexecuted on a computing device at the ESP; c) detecting selection of theoption to initiate an autonomous communication session for the emergencyalert; d) presenting an emergency response prompt at a communicationdevice associated with the emergency alert; e) receiving confirmation ofthe emergency response prompt; f) in response to receiving confirmationof the emergency response prompt, initiating an autonomous communicationsession with the communication device; g) extracting emergencyinformation from the autonomous communication session; h) transmittingthe emergency information to the ESP; and i) displaying the emergencyinformation through the GUI of the emergency response application.

As mentioned above, in some embodiments, the components of the system200 (as depicted in FIG. 2) function to identify a user at risk of anemergency, initiate an autonomous communication session with acommunication device 210 associated with the user, extract emergencyinformation from the autonomous communication session, and transmit theemergency information to an emergency service provider (ESP) 230. Insome embodiments, after the emergency information is transmitted to theESP, the emergency information is then displayed within a graphical userinterface (GUI) of an emergency response application 760 (as illustratedin FIGS. 7A and 7B). FIG. 7B illustrates emergency data or emergencyinformation (some or all of which was extracted from an autonomouscommunication session) regarding an emergency displayed within the GUIof an emergency response application 760. For example, in the exampleillustrated in FIG. 7B, an emergency alert associated with the deviceidentifier 1-984-562-4564 was generated by an electronic deviceassociated with the device identifier on Jan. 23, 2019 at 3:54 PM. Inthis example, the emergency alert is associated with a location thatfalls within the jurisdiction of the ESP at which the emergency responseapplication 760 is being accessed, so an incident and a correspondinglocation marker (as described above) are displayed within the GUI of theemergency response application 760. In this example, an emergency callassociated with the emergency alert was received by the ESP but was thensubsequently dropped or disconnected, as indicated by the question markdisplayed on the incident within the list of incidents. In response, theemergency response application 760 presented a Start Chatbot button 793A(as illustrated in FIG. 7A) for the incident within the GUI of theemergency response application 760, and a user of the emergency responseapplication 760 has selected the Start ChatBot button 793A, therebydelivering a digital communication to the EMS prompting the EMS toinitiate an autonomous communication session with a communication deviceassociated with the device identifier 1-984-562-4564. The Start ChatBotbutton 793A has now been replaced with a Bot Activated indicator 793B.After initiating the autonomous communication session with thecommunication device, the EMS has extracted emergency information fromthe autonomous communication session, and the emergency information 716is now displayed within the GUI of the emergency response application760. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 7B, the emergency informationincludes an address of the emergency, whether the emergency has beenconfirmed, the type of the emergency (e.g., fire), a severity of theemergency (e.g., critical), and a photo 708 of the emergency (e.g., thephoto 608 transmitted to the EMS through the autonomous communicationsession depicted in FIG. 6). In some embodiments, a user of theemergency response application 760 can transmit or transfer emergencyinformation extracted from an autonomous communication session to acomputer aided dispatch (CAD) system, such as by selecting a Push to CADbutton 718, as illustrated by FIG. 7B.

In some embodiments, the EMS transmits emergency information extractedfrom an autonomous communication session in real-time. For example, insome embodiments, the EMS transmits answers from a user to questionsposed through an autonomous communication session to an ESP as theanswers are being received. In other embodiments, the EMS waits totransmit emergency information extracted from an autonomouscommunication session to an ESP until the autonomous communicationsession has been concluded (e.g., when the predetermined script hasfinished and received answers to each of the questions posed during theautonomous communication session). In some embodiments, the EMS cantransmit emergency data or emergency information associated with anemergency (e.g., an emergency alert) gathered from other sources (i.e.,outside of an autonomous communication session; e.g., a separatedatabase of medical information) to an ESP in addition to emergency dataor emergency information extracted from an autonomous communicationsession. For example, if the EMS receives an emergency alert associatedwith a device identifier, the EMS can a) initiate an autonomouscommunication session with a communication device associated with thedevice identifier and extract emergency information from the autonomouscommunication session and b) simultaneously or subsequently query one ormore databases within or outside of the EMS using the device identifierto receive additional emergency information associated with theemergency alert. The EMS can then transmit the emergency informationextracted from the autonomous communication session and any additionalemergency information received from the one or more databases within oroutside of the EMS to an ESP concurrently.

FIG. 8 depicts an embodiment of a system for facilitating emergencycommunications during an emergency by an emergency management system inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. As mentionedabove, in some embodiments, the system includes an electronic device810A, an emergency management system (EMS) 820, an emergency serviceprovider 830 (e.g., a public safety answering point (PSAP) or emergencydispatch center (EDC)), and one or more emergency responders 842. Insome embodiments, the system additionally includes one or more sourcesof social media data 860 (e.g., a social media feed, such as a stream orfeed of Twitter posts). In some embodiments, the system additionallyincludes a group of electronic devices 810B.

In some embodiments, the EMS 820 receives social media data from the oneor more sources of social media data 860 and analyzes the social mediadata for potential emergencies. For example, the EMS 820 can monitor thesocial media data for social media posts indicative of an emergency. Inresponse to detecting one or more social media posts indicative of anemergency, the EMS 820 can identify one or more users potentiallyaffected by the emergency, identify communication devices 810 associatedwith the one or more users, transmit emergency response messages to thecommunication devices 810, and, in response to receiving confirmation ofthe emergency response messages, initiate autonomous communicationsessions with the one or more users through the communication devices810. In some embodiments, a user potentially affected by the emergencyis identified based on the one or more social media posts. For example,in some embodiments, the one or more social media posts are posted by auser potentially affected by the emergency. In some embodiments, the EMS820 generates an emergency vicinity for the emergency based on the oneor more social media posts and the one or more users potentiallyaffected by the emergency are identified as within or potentially withinthe emergency vicinity. The EMS 820 can then initiate autonomouscommunication sessions with a group of communication devices 810Bincluding a communication device 810 associated with each of the one ormore users potentially affected by the emergency. In some embodiments,the EMS 820 receives a location from a communication device 810associated with a user potentially affected by the emergency andconfirms that the location is within the emergency vicinity beforetransmitting an emergency response message to the communication device810.

FIG. 9 depicts an embodiment of a system for detecting one or moresocial media posts indicative of an emergency in accordance with oneembodiment of the present disclosure. As mentioned above, in someembodiments, the EMS receives social media data from the one or moresources of social media data 960 and analyzes the social media data forpotential emergencies. In some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 9, theEMS receives social media posts from a social media feed and passes thesocial media posts through one or more filtering layers 961. Thefiltering layers can filter the social media posts for location,relevancy, credibility, legitimacy, and other factors. The social mediaposts can then be stored in data storage 962, such as a database.

Emergency Assistant Application

FIGS. 10A and 10B depict diagrams of (i) an electronic device 1010, (ii)an emergency management system 1020, (iii) an emergency service provider(ESP) system 1030, and (iv) ESP software 1040 in accordance with oneembodiment of the present disclosure. As described above, in someembodiments, the electronic device 1010 is a digital processing devicesuch as a communication device, wearable device, IoT device, or securitymonitoring device. In some embodiments, the electronic device 1010includes a display 1011, a processor 1012, a memory 1013, and severalother optional components such as one or more network components 1014, adata storage 1015, a user interface 1016, a computer program 1017, oneor more location components 1018, and one or more sensors 1019. In someembodiments, the electronic device 1010 additionally or alternativelyincludes a mobile application 1051 (also referred to as a “mobile app”)configured to perform emergency response functions in response to anemergency alert (such as an emergency alert initiated by the emergencyalert program) or according to instructions from the EMS 1020. Asdescribed above, in some embodiments, the emergency management system(EMS) 1020 includes an EMS operating system 1024, an EMS CPU 1026, anEMS memory unit 1027, and an EMS communication element 1028. In someembodiments, as depicted in FIG. 10A, the EMS 1020 includes an emergencyassistance system 1052 configured to provide an emergency assistantapplication on an electronic device 1010, as described below.

As described above, in some embodiments, an ESP 1030 is an emergencyservice provider (ESP) system that includes one or more of a display1031, a memory 1038, a user interface 1036, at least one centralprocessing unit (processor) 1032, a network component 1035, an audiosystem 1034, and a computer program (software) 1039. In someembodiments, the ESP software includes at least one software module1040, such as a call taking module 1045, an ESP display module 1046, asupplemental or updated information module 1047, a feedback module 1048,or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, location and supplementalinformation is displayed for other emergency service providers (e.g.,police, fire, medical, etc.) and/or responders on their respectivedevices.

FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment of an emergency assistant applicationin accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, when an emergency alert is generated for an emergency by anelectronic device (such as a 9-1-1 call being dialed on a mobile phonein the United States), the emergency management system (EMS) provides anemergency assistant application through an electronic device associatedwith the emergency alert to gather emergency information regarding theemergency and deliver safety recommendations to one or more personspotentially affected by the emergency. The emergency alert provides anindication of an emergency (e.g., a sign or piece of information thatindicates an emergency), for example, that a user of the device thatsent the alert may be at risk of an emergency. Other indications of anemergency can include an emergency communication sent by a home alarm orsecurity system, an alert and/or sensor readings from an IoT or smartfire or carbon monoxide alarm, or a natural disaster alert for an areathat the user device is located within such as a tornado warning. Forexample, in some embodiments, after detecting an emergency alert, theEMS can identify an electronic device associated with the emergencyalert and provide an emergency assistant application through aninterface of the electronic device. In some embodiments, as depicted byFIG. 11, the EMS provides the emergency assistant application 1107through the interface of the electronic device 1110 by transmitting anemergency response message 1101 to the electronic device 1110, receivingconfirmation of the emergency response message, and, in response toreceiving confirmation of the emergency response message, initiating anautonomous communication session 1103 with a user of the electronicdevice. In some embodiments, wherein the electronic device 1110 is acommunication device (e.g., a smartphone), the emergency responsemessage 1101 is a first SMS text message and confirmation of theemergency response message is a second SMS text message received fromthe user in response to the first SMS text message. In some embodiments,the emergency response message 1101 is a push notification andconfirmation of the emergency response message is selection of the pushnotification. For example, in an embodiment in which the emergencyresponse message is a push notification, a user can confirm the pushnotification by swiping the push notification or otherwise selecting thepush notification, such as by selecting the “Get Help” button depictedin FIG. 11. In some embodiments, the EMS initiates the autonomouscommunication session 1103 with the user of the electronic device bylaunching a mobile application on the communication device 1110. In someembodiments, the mobile application includes a graphical user interfacethrough which the autonomous communication session 1103 is held. In someembodiments, the graphical user interface includes one or more softbuttons 1106 or text entry fields for the user to respond to questionsposed through the emergency response application 1107 during theautonomous communication session 1103, as depicted in FIG. 11. Forexample, as depicted in FIG. 11, the EMS poses the question “What is thenature of your emergency?” through the graphical user interface andpresents four soft buttons 1106 as options for response: Fire, Med(medical), Police, and Car.

FIGS. 12A and 12B illustrate embodiments of an emergency assistantapplication in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.As mentioned above, in some embodiments, when an emergency alert isgenerated for an emergency by an electronic device (such as a 9-1-1 callbeing dialed on a mobile phone in the United States), the emergencymanagement system provides an emergency assistant application through anelectronic device associated with the emergency alert to gatheremergency information regarding the emergency and deliver safetyrecommendations to one or more persons potentially affected by theemergency. For example, in some embodiments, after detecting anemergency alert, the EMS can identify an electronic device associatedwith the emergency alert and provide an emergency assistant applicationthrough an interface of the electronic device. In some embodiments, theelectronic device is one of a smartphone, a wearable device, an IoTdevice, or a vehicle.

In some embodiments, wherein the electronic device is a wearable device1210B, the EMS provides the emergency assistant application 1207 throughthe interface of the wearable device 1210B by transmitting an emergencyresponse message to the wearable device, receiving confirmation of theemergency response message, and, in response to receiving confirmationof the emergency response message, initiating an autonomouscommunication session 1203 with a user of the wearable device, asdepicted in FIG. 12A. In some embodiments, the wearable device 1210Bhouses or is otherwise coupled to a microphone and a speaker. In such anembodiment, the EMS can transmit the emergency response message to thewearable device 1210B by audibly playing the emergency response messagethrough the speaker and receive confirmation of the emergency responsemessage by receiving verbal confirmation of the emergency responsemessage through the microphone. In some embodiments, the EMS initiatesthe autonomous communication 1203 with the user of the wearable deviceby audibly playing one or more audio messages through the speaker. Insome embodiments, the EMS initiates the autonomous communication session1203A by launching a mobile application on the wearable device 1210B, asdepicted by FIG. 12A. In some embodiments, the mobile applicationincludes a graphical user interface through which the autonomouscommunication session 1203 is held. In some embodiments, the graphicaluser interface includes one or more soft buttons for the user to respondto questions during the autonomous communication session 1203, asdepicted by FIG. 12A.

In some embodiments, wherein the electronic device is an IoT device1210C housing or otherwise coupled to a microphone and a speaker, theEMS provides the emergency assistant application through the interfaceof the IoT device 1210C by transmitting an emergency response message tothe IoT device 1210C, audibly playing the emergency response messagethrough the speaker, receiving verbal confirmation of the emergencyresponse message through the microphone, and, in response to receivingverbal confirmation of the emergency response message, initiating anautonomous communication session with a user of the IoT device, whereinthe autonomous communication session is held using the speaker andmicrophone. In some embodiments, the EMS initiates the autonomouscommunication session 1203B with the user by audibly playing one or moreaudio messages through the speaker, as depicted by FIG. 12B.

In some embodiments, the electronic device is communicatively coupled toa headset 1008 housing or otherwise coupled to a microphone and aspeaker. In such an embodiment, the EMS can provide the emergencyassistant application through the interface of the electronic device bytransmitting an emergency response message to the electronic device,audibly playing the emergency response message through the speaker,receiving verbal confirmation of the emergency response message throughthe microphone, and, in response to receiving verbal confirmation of theemergency response message, initiating an autonomous communicationsession with a user of the electronic device. In some embodiments, theEMS initiates the autonomous communication session by audibly playingone or more audio messages through the speaker. In some embodiments, theelectronic device is a communication device, such as a smartphone. Insome embodiments, the electronic device is a wearable device 1210B.

FIG. 13 illustrates an embodiment of an emergency assistant application1307 in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. Asmentioned above, in some embodiments, when an emergency alert isgenerated for an emergency by an electronic device (such as a 9-1-1 callbeing dialed on a mobile phone in the United States), the emergencymanagement system (EMS) provides an emergency assistant applicationthrough an electronic device associated with the emergency alert togather emergency information regarding the emergency and deliver safetyrecommendations to one or more persons potentially affected by theemergency. In some embodiments, the electronic device is one of asmartphone, a wearable device, an IoT device, or a vehicle. In someembodiments, wherein the electronic device is a communication device(e.g., a smartphone), the EMS provides an emergency assistantapplication through an interface of the communication device byinitiating an autonomous communication session with a user of thecommunication device, as described above. In such an embodiment, the EMScan receive emergency information obtained through the interface of theelectronic device by receiving one or more SMS text messages from thecommunication device and extracting the emergency information from theone or more SMS text messages.

In some embodiments, wherein the electronic device 1310 is acommunication device or a wearable device, the EMS provides an emergencyassistant application 1307 through an interface of the communicationdevice or wearable device by launching a mobile application on thecommunication device or wearable device, as described above. In someembodiments, the mobile application includes a graphical user interfacethrough which an autonomous communication session 1303 is held, and thegraphical user interface includes one or more soft buttons 1306 or textentry fields for the user to respond to questions posed through theemergency assistant application 1107 during the autonomous communicationsession 1303, as depicted by FIG. 13. In such an embodiment, the EMS canreceive emergency information through the interface of the communicationdevice or wearable device by receiving, from a user of the communicationdevice or wearable device, responses to questions posed through theemergency assistant application 1307 during the autonomous communicationsession 1303. In some embodiments, wherein the electronic device is anIoT device housing or otherwise coupled to a microphone and a speaker,or wherein the electronic device is coupled to a headset housing orotherwise coupled to a microphone and a speaker, the EMS can provide theemergency assistant application through the interface of the electronicdevice by initiating an autonomous communication session held using thespeaker and microphone, as described above. In such an embodiment, theEMS can receive emergency information obtained through the interface ofthe electronic device by receiving, from a user of the electronicdevice, verbal responses to questions posed through the emergencyassistant application during the autonomous communication session.

In some embodiments, after initiating an autonomous communicationsession with an electronic device, the EMS poses questions to the userthrough the emergency assistant application. In some embodiments, thequestions posed through the emergency assistant application are limitedto a predetermined number of questions. In some embodiments, thepredetermined number of questions is two or three. In some embodiments,one of the questions posed to the user through the emergency assistantapplication prompts the user to identify a nature of the emergency, asdepicted in FIG. 13. In some embodiments, one of the questions posed tothe user through the emergency assistant application 1307 prompts theuser to identify an afflicted body part. In embodiments, the EMSreceives a verbal response from the user identifying an afflicted bodypart. In some embodiments, the EMS provides a virtual body diagram 1308through the interface of the electronic device, as depicted in FIG. 13,and receives a response identifying the afflicted body part 1309, fromthe user, through the virtual body diagram 1308 provided through theinterface of the electronic device 1310. For example, in someembodiments, a user can tap on their afflicted body part 1309 on thevirtual body diagram 1308 presented through the graphical user interfaceof the electronic device 1310.

FIG. 14 depicts an embodiment of a decision tree 1471 in accordance withone embodiment of the present disclosure. As mentioned above, in someembodiments, when an emergency alert is generated for an emergency by anelectronic device (such as a 9-1-1 call being dialed on a mobile phonein the United States), the emergency management system provides anemergency assistant application through an electronic device associatedwith the emergency alert to gather emergency information regarding theemergency and deliver safety recommendations to one or more personspotentially affected by the emergency. In some embodiments, the EMSgenerates or retrieves a safety recommendation from a safetyrecommendation database based on a likely emergency category determinedfor the emergency. In some embodiments, the EMS determines a likelyemergency category for the emergency based at least in part on emergencyinformation received through the interface of the electronic device, asdescribed above. In some embodiments, the EMS determines a nature of theemergency and determines a likely emergency category for the emergencybased at least in part on the emergency information received through theinterface of the electronic device and at least in part on the nature ofthe emergency. In some embodiments, the nature of the emergency is oneof medical, fire, or police. In some embodiments, the nature of theemergency is included in the emergency alert. In some embodiments, theEMS gathers emergency data and determines the nature of the emergencyusing the emergency data. In some embodiments, the emergency dataincludes at least one of sensor data, environmental data, health data,or medical history. In some embodiments, the emergency data is gatheredfrom an emergency data database. In some embodiments, the emergency datais gathered from a second electronic device associated with a user ofthe electronic device. In some embodiments, the emergency data isgathered from a second electronic device communicatively coupled to theelectronic device. In some embodiments, the second electronic device isone of a smartphone, a wearable device, or a vehicle.

In some embodiments, after providing the emergency assistant applicationthrough an interface of the electronic device, the EMS access a decisiontree 1471 for safety recommendations and steps through the decision treeusing emergency information received through the interface of theelectronic device to determine the likely emergency, as depicted by FIG.14. In some embodiments, the EMS accesses the decision tree based on anature of emergency determined for an emergency. In some embodiments,each step of the decision tree points to a corresponding safetyrecommendation within the safety recommendation database. In someembodiments, after initiating an autonomous communication session with auser of the electronic device, posing questions to the user through theemergency assistant application (as described above), and receivingresponses to the questions posed to the user through the emergencyassistant application during the autonomous communication session, theEMS then uses each response received from the user during the autonomouscommunication session to move one step forward on the decision tree. Insome embodiments, each level of the decision tree asks a more detailedand/or specific question than the precious level. In some embodiments,if the EMS does not have enough information to answer the next questionin a decision tree, the EMS stops moving through the decision tree andselects the safety recommendation corresponding to the most recentlyanswered question on the decision tree as the most appropriate safetyrecommendation for the current emergency.

FIG. 15 illustrates examples of a safety recommendation. As mentionedabove, in some embodiments, when an emergency alert is generated for anemergency by an electronic device (such as a 9-1-1 call being dialed ona mobile phone in the United States), the emergency management systemprovides an emergency assistant application through an electronic deviceassociated with the emergency alert to gather emergency informationregarding the emergency and deliver safety recommendations to one ormore persons potentially affected by the emergency. The emergencyassistant application can be integrated with the autonomouscommunication session (e.g., Chatbot) as described herein.Alternatively, the autonomous communication session can deliver safetyrecommendations or instructions independently of the emergency assistantapplication. For example, the autonomous communication session canprovide safety recommendations to the communication device of a user viatext messaging. As discussed above, in some embodiments, the electronicdevice is one of a smartphone, a wearable device, an IoT device, or avehicle. In some embodiments, after determining a likely emergencycategory for the emergency, the EMS retrieves a safety recommendation1572 based on the likely emergency category from a safety recommendationdatabase and delivers the safety recommendation 1572 through aninterface of the electronic device 1510, as depicted by FIG. 15. In someembodiments, the safety recommendation 1572B is delivered through theinterface of the electronic device 1510B as text. In some embodiments,the safety recommendation is delivered through the interface of theelectronic device 1510C as audio 1572C. In some embodiments, the audiois a text-to-speech conversion of a text file. In some embodiments, thesafety recommendation 1572A is delivered through the interface of theelectronic device 1510A as a photo or video. In some embodiments,wherein the electronic device is a communication device (e.g., asmartphone), the EMS delivers the safety recommendation by transmittingan SMS text message to the communication device. In some embodiments,wherein the electronic device is a communication device 1510A or awearable device 1510B, the EMS delivers the safety recommendation 1572through a graphical user interface of a mobile application. In someembodiments, wherein the electronic device 1510 is an IoT device 1510Chousing or otherwise coupled to a microphone and speaker, or wherein theelectronic device 1510 is coupled to a headset 1508 housing or otherwisecoupled to a microphone and speaker, the EMS delivers the safetyrecommendation 1572 by audibly playing the safety recommendation 1572through the speaker, as depicted by FIG. 15.

Automatic Emergency Response Coordination

FIGS. 16A and 16B depict diagrams of (i) an electronic device 1610, (ii)an emergency management system 1620, (iii) an emergency service provider(ESP) system 1630, and (iv) ESP software 1640 in accordance with oneembodiment of the present disclosure. As described above, in someembodiments, the electronic device 1610 is a digital processing devicesuch as a communication device (e.g., a mobile phone), wearable device,or IoT device. In some embodiments, the electronic device 1610 includesa display 1611, a processor 1612, a memory 1613, and several otheroptional components such as one or more network components 1614, a datastorage 1615, a user interface 1616, a computer program 1617, one ormore location components 1618, and one or more sensors 1619. In someembodiments, the electronic device 1610 additionally or alternativelyincludes a mobile application 1651 (also referred to as a “mobile app”)configured to perform emergency response functions in response to anemergency alert (such as an emergency alert initiated by the emergencyalert program) or according to instructions from the EMS 1620. Asdescribed above, in some embodiments, the emergency management system(EMS) 1620 includes an EMS operating system 1624, an EMS CPU 1626, anEMS memory unit 1627, and an EMS communication element 1628. In someembodiments, as depicted in FIG. 16A, the emergency management system1620 includes a dispatch recommendation system 1654 configured togenerated automated dispatch recommendations in response to emergenciesand provide the dispatch recommendations to emergency service providers.As described above, in some embodiments, an ESP 1630 is an emergencyservice provider (ESP) system that includes one or more of a display1631, a memory 1638, a user interface 1636, at least one centralprocessing unit (processor) 1632, a network component 1635, an audiosystem 1634, and a computer program (software) 1639. In someembodiments, the ESP software includes at least one software module1640, such as a call taking module 1645, an ESP display module 1646, asupplemental or updated information module 1647, a feedback module 1648,or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, location and supplementalinformation is displayed for other emergency service providers (e.g.,police, fire, medical, etc.) and/or responders on their respectivedevices.

FIG. 17 depicts an embodiment of a system for coordinating emergencyresponse by an emergency management system in accordance with oneembodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the systemincludes an electronic device 1710, an emergency management system (EMS)1720, and an emergency service provider (ESP) 1730 or emergency serviceprovider personnel 1742. In some embodiments, when an emergency alert isgenerated for an emergency by an electronic device 1710 (e.g., a smartthermostat detecting a fire), the emergency management system 1720receives the emergency alert, gathers emergency data associated with theemergency alert, determines a nature of the emergency, determines aseverity index for the emergency based at least in part on the emergencydata, generates a dispatch recommendation for the emergency based atleast in part on the nature of the emergency and the severity index, andtransmits the dispatch recommendation to an emergency service provider(ESP) personnel 1742. In some embodiments, the electronic device 1710 isa sensor device, and the emergency alert is automatically generated bythe sensor device in response to detecting an emergency based on sensordata gathered by the sensor device. In some embodiments, the electronicdevice 1710 is an intelligent vehicle system, and the emergency alert isautomatically generated by the intelligent vehicle system in response todetecting an emergency based on sensor data gathered by the intelligentvehicle system.

Severity Index

FIG. 18 illustrates an emergency data analysis scenario in accordancewith one embodiment of the present disclosure. As mentioned above, insome embodiments, after receiving an emergency alert associated with anemergency, the emergency management system determines a nature of theemergency. In some embodiments, the nature of the emergency is includedin the emergency alert. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem determines the nature of the emergency using emergency dataassociated with the emergency alert, as depicted in FIG. 18. In someembodiments, the EMS gathers some or all of the emergency data from oneor more EMS databases. In some embodiments, the emergency data includesstatic information such as name, age, address, medical history,allergies, etc. In some embodiment, emergency data includes dynamic orreal-time information received from one or more sensors in the vicinityof an emergency. In some embodiments, the emergency data associated withthe emergency alert includes at least one of health data, sensor data,environmental data, audio, video, and medical history. In someembodiments, the emergency management system gathers emergency dataassociated with the emergency alert by providing an emergency assistantapplication through an interface of an electronic device associated withthe emergency and receiving emergency information obtained through theinterface of the electronic device, as discussed above. In someembodiments, the emergency management system poses questions to a userof the electronic device through the emergency assistant application andreceives emergency information obtained through the interface of theelectronic device by receiving responses to the questions posed throughthe emergency assistant application. In some embodiments, one of thequestions posed through the emergency assistant application asks theuser for a nature of the emergency.

In some embodiments, the emergency data associated with the emergencyalert includes audio or video, and the emergency management systemdetermines the nature of the emergency by processing the audio or videofor audio or visual cues. In some embodiments, the audio cues includekey words. In some embodiments, the audio cues include volume level. Insome embodiments, the audio cues include unique voices. In someembodiments, the visual cues include at least one of light intensity,activity, objects, or people. For example, in some embodiments, for thefire depicted in FIG. 18, the family depicted in FIG. 18 may call 9-1-1,thereby generating an emergency alert that the emergency managementsystem can detect. In response to detecting the emergency alert, in someembodiments, the emergency management system can identify the smartcamera 1874 depicted in FIG. 18 as associated with the device used tocall 9-1-1. The emergency management system can then connect to thesmart camera 1874 and receive video taken by the smart camera. Theemergency management system may then process the video received from thesmart camera and detect a sharp increase in the light intensity withinthe video, indicating that a fire 1873 has ignited. In another example,FIG. 19 depicts a medical emergency. A man 1976 has collapsed and isbleeding on the floor of a living room. A woman in the living room withthe collapsed man calls 9-1-1, such as by speaking a voice command to asmart speaker 1975 also situated in the living room. In response toreceiving the voice command, the smart speaker 1975 connects to 9-1-1and generates an emergency alert for the emergency (e.g., the collapsedand bleeding man 1976) that is sent to the emergency management system.In some embodiments, the emergency management system detects the smartcamera 1974 in the living room and identifies the smart camera 1974 asassociated with the emergency. For example, in some embodiments, theemergency management system detects that the smart camera 1974 and smartspeaker 1975 are associated with a common account. The emergencymanagement system can then receive emergency data from one or both ofthe smart camera 1974 and the smart speaker 1975. For example, theemergency management system may receive audio recorded by the smartspeaker and recognize the word “fallen” or “bleeding” within the audioand determine the nature of the emergency to be a medical emergency. Inanother example, the emergency management system recognizes a collapsedperson in a video received from the smart camera and determines thenature of the emergency to be a medical emergency. In some embodiments,the emergency management system uses the emergency data associated withthe emergency alert to determine a dispatch category for the emergency.The emergency management system can then use the dispatch category togenerate a dispatch recommendation for the emergency, as describedbelow.

FIG. 20 illustrates an emergency data analysis scenario in accordancewith one embodiment of the present disclosure. As mentioned above, insome embodiments, when an emergency alert is generated for an emergencyby an electronic device, the emergency management system receives theemergency alert, gathers emergency data associated with the emergencyalert, determines a nature of the emergency, and determines a severityindex for the emergency based at least in part on the emergency data.For example, in an embodiment in which the electronic device is anintelligent vehicle system, when a car including an intelligent vehiclesystem is involved in a car accident (as depicted in FIG. 20), theintelligent vehicle system automatically generates an emergency alertand transmits the emergency alert to the emergency management system. Insome embodiments, the emergency alert indicates that the emergency is avehicular emergency. In some embodiments, the intelligent vehicle systemgathers emergency data associated with the emergency alert such as thespeed that the car was moving at the time of the accident, the area ofincidence, how many passengers were in the car, or any other informationgathered by the car's telematics systems and transmits the emergencydata to the emergency management system. For example, in someembodiments, the intelligent vehicle system can determine if the area ofincidence is the front of the car 2077A or the side of the car 2077B,which may indicate a difference in the severity of the accident. In someembodiments, the emergency management system uses the emergency data todetermine a severity index for the car accident. In some embodiments,the severity index is generated by the electronic device and included inthe emergency alert. In some embodiments, the severity index is receivedfrom an external source.

In some embodiments, the severity index is a quantized value, such as aninteger between zero and ten. In some embodiments, the severity index isa qualitative level. For example, in some embodiments, the qualitativelevel is one of low, medium, and high. In some embodiments, thequalitative level is one of low and high. In some embodiments, theemergency management system processes emergency data associated with anemergency alert to determine a number of persons involved in anemergency and determines a severity index of the emergency based atleast in part on the number of persons involved in the emergency. Insome embodiments, wherein the severity index is qualitative levelbetween low and high, the severity index is determined to be high inresponse to the number of persons involved in the emergency equaling orexceeding two persons. In some embodiments, the severity index isdetermined to be high in response to receiving a response to a questionposed through an emergency assistant application indicating that aperson involved in the emergency needs immediate emergency assistance.In some embodiments, the severity index is determined to be high inresponse to receiving a response to a question posed through anemergency assistant application indicating that the emergency involves alife-threatening danger.

FIG. 21 illustrates an embodiment of a dispatch recommendation inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, after determining a nature of an emergency and a severityindex for the emergency, the emergency management system generates adispatch recommendation for the emergency. In some embodiments, thedispatch recommendation includes at least one type of emergency responseunit and at least one number of the at least one type of emergencyresponse unit. For example, the dispatch recommendation may call for onebasic life safety ambulance unit. In another example, the dispatchrecommendation may call for one basic life safety ambulance unit and twoadvanced life safety ambulance unit. In another example, the dispatchrecommendation the dispatch recommendation may call for one advancedlife safety ambulance unit and two police squad car units. In someembodiments, the emergency management system accesses a dispatchprotocol including a list of dispatch recommendations, wherein eachcombination of nature of emergency and severity index corresponds to aparticular dispatch recommendation on the list of dispatchrecommendations. In some embodiments, the emergency management systemidentifies a location of an emergency and generates a dispatchrecommendation for the emergency based at least in part on the nature ofthe emergency, the severity index, and the location of the emergency. Insome embodiments, the emergency management system accesses a responderinformation database, identifies one or more emergency service providersin the vicinity of the location of the emergency, and determines thetypes, capabilities, or availabilities of emergency response units fromthe one or more emergency service providers. In some embodiments, thedispatch recommendation includes directions 2178 from one or moreemergency service providers 2130 to the location of the emergency, asdepicted by FIG. 21. In some embodiments, the emergency managementsystem graphically displays the dispatch recommendation within a map onan ESP device, such as the map depicted by FIG. 21. In some embodiments,after a dispatch recommendation is sent to an emergency serviceprovider, an incident is created within the ESP system (such as within aCAD system included in the ESP system) corresponding to the emergencyalert for which the dispatch recommendation was created.

Emergency Dispatch Cards

FIG. 22 depicts an embodiment of a priority dispatch card 2280(hereinafter, “dispatch card”), in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. As described above, in some embodiments, afterreceiving an emergency alert associated with an emergency, the emergencymanagement system (EMS) gathers emergency data associated with emergencyalert and generates a dispatch recommendation for the emergency. In someembodiments, the EMS generates a dispatch recommendation for theemergency at least in part by using a dispatch card. In general, adispatch card 2280 is a representation of a protocol for how to respondto a specific type of emergency. For example, the dispatch card 2280Adepicted by FIG. 22 represents a protocol for how to respond to burns(scalds)/explosions. Various forms of dispatch cards are used byemergency service providers (such as PSAP personnel) in responding toemergencies. A dispatch card 2280 contains one or more questions 2281related to the specific type of emergency that the dispatch card isassociated with. For example, the burns (scalds)/explosions dispatchcard 2280A depicted by FIG. 22 includes seven questions, beginning with“1. Is this a building fire?” and ending with “7. What parts of the bodywere burned (or injured)?” The dispatch card 2280 additionally containsone or more dispatch options 2282 to be selected based on the answers tothe one or more questions 2281 contained by the dispatch card. Whenbeing used in a PSAP, a call taker or dispatcher will answer thequestions on a dispatch card using information qualitatively received byverbally speaking with a 9-1-1 caller. The call taker or dispatcher willthen select the most appropriate dispatch option on the dispatch cardbased on the answers to the questions on the dispatch card. For example,the burns (scalds)/explosions dispatch card 2280A includes four dispatchoptions 2282: dispatch options A, B, C, and D. In this example, if avictim has been burned and has burns on less than 18% of their bodyarea, a fire alarm has been pulled and nothing else is known about theemergency, or if the victim has been burned and has a sunburn or minorburns (burns smaller than the victim's hand size), then an emergencyresponse according to dispatch option A is recommended. If there aremultiple burn victims, if a victim is unconscious or in cardiac arrest,a victim is suffering from severe respiratory distress, or if a victimis not alert, an emergency response according to dispatch option D isrecommended. In some embodiments, the dispatch option includes at leastone type of emergency response unit and at least one number of the atleast one type of emergency response unit. A dispatch option differsfrom a dispatch recommendation in that a dispatch option is not specificto a particular emergency instance.

Dispatch cards 2280 are useful tools in responding to emergencies;however, as the process of completing a dispatch card requires a calltaker to verbally ask and receive answers to the questions on thedispatch card, the process can take a significant amount of time, whichcan have a negative impact on emergency response success rates. Forexample, when using the Burns (Scalds)/Explosions dispatch card 2280Adepicted in FIG. 22 to respond to a burn emergency, a call taker wouldideally answer all seven questions 2281 on the dispatch card beforeselecting a dispatch option 2282. If it takes the call taker an averageof 15 seconds to ask and receive an answer from the caller for eachquestion, it would take a call taker nearly two minutes to complete thedispatch card, thereby adding two minutes to the total response time forthe emergency. It has been well established that mortality rates areextremely sensitive to response time, particularly at the onset of anemergency. For example, a 7-10% reduction in mortality rate per minutehas been observed during the first 5-10 minutes for cardiac orrespiratory emergencies. The time saved when completing a dispatch cardcan thus have a significant impact on the likelihood of a successfulemergency response. As will be described below, the EMS can instantlyand simultaneously answer one or more questions on a dispatch card assoon as a dispatch card has been determined for a particular emergencyusing emergency data gathered for the particular emergency (e.g.,emergency data associated with an emergency alert associated with theparticular emergency), thereby reducing the time required to complete adispatch card an potentially significantly increase the likelihood of asuccessful emergency response.

In some embodiments, after receiving an emergency alert associated withan emergency, the EMS gathers emergency data associated with theemergency alert (as described above with respect to FIG. 18) anddetermines a dispatch card 2280 appropriate for the emergency. In someembodiments, the EMS stores a plurality of dispatch cards, wherein eachdispatch card within the plurality of dispatch cards is associated witha different type of emergency. For example, in some embodiments, the EMSstores 33 different dispatch cards: a respective dispatch card for eachof 1) abdominal pain, 2) allergies/envenomation, 3) animalbites/attacks, 4) assault/sexual assault, 5) back pain, 6) breathingproblems, 7) burns/explosions (as depicted by FIG. 22), 8) carbonmonoxide (CO)/hazmat, 9) cardiac or respiratory arrest/death, 10) chestpain (non-traumatic), 11) choking, 12) convulsions/seizures, 13)diabetic, 14) drowning, 15) electrocution/lightning, 16) eyeproblems/injuries, 17) falls, 18) headache, 19) heart problems, 20)heat/cold exposure, 21) hemorrhage/lacerations, 22) inaccessibleincident/other entrapments, 23) overdose/poisoning, 24)pregnancy/childbirth/miscarriage, 25) psychiatric/abnormalbehavior/suicide attempt, 26) sick person, 27) stab/gunshot/penetratingtrauma, 28) stroke, 29) traffic/transportation accidents, 30) traumaticinjuries, 31) unconscious/fainting, 32) unknown problem, and 33)transfer/interfacility/palliative care. This set of dispatch cards isrepresented below in the table depicted in FIG. 23A, wherein each row(1-33) represents a different dispatch card. Each column (A-R)represents a different emergency data type that may be available to theEMS for a given emergency. In this example, certain emergency data typesmay only be pertinent to certain emergency dispatch cards. For example,as depicted in FIG. 23A, real-time multimedia (data type R) is pertinent(e.g., helpful in answering a dispatch card question) to each of the 33dispatch cards while heart rate is only pertinent to dispatch cards #9(cardiac or respiratory arrest), #19 (heart problems), #20 (heat/coldexposure), #26 (sick person), #32 (unknown problem), and #33(transfer/interfacility/palliative care). Or for example, the emergencydata types pertinent to dispatch card #9 (cardiac or respiratory arrest)are emergency data types A (age), B (pre-existing medical conditions), C(medication), D (fall detection), E (breathing), F (heart rate), and R(real-time multimedia). As depicted in FIG. 23B, in some embodiments,emergency data types may be tagged or otherwise categorized into groups.In this example, emergency data types A (age), B (pre-existing medicalconditions), and C (medications) are all be tagged as “static” emergencydata types. Static emergency data types are not specific to a particularemergency instance. Emergency data types D-I are tagged as “medical”emergency data types, emergency data types J-M are tagged as “home”emergency data types, and emergency data types N-Q are tagged as “auto”emergency data types. The “medical,” “home,” and “auto” emergency datatypes may also be considered dynamic emergency data types, as each ofthese emergency data types are specific to particular emergencyinstances (e.g., a sampled heart rate is only applicable in theemergency instance during which it was sampled).

In some embodiments, the EMS determines or selects the dispatch cardappropriate for a particular emergency autonomously based on theemergency data associated with the emergency alert. For example, in oneembodiment, a wearable device may detect that the wearer of the wearabledevice is experiencing arrhythmia (e.g., an irregular heartbeat) andpresent a button through an interface of the wearable device that thewearer can select to send an emergency alert to the EMS, if necessary.If the wearer selects the button, the wearable device transmits anemergency alert, along with any available emergency data, to the EMS onbehalf of the wearer. In this example, the wearable device includes aheartrate sensor (which was used to determine that the wearer wasexperiencing the arrhythmia) and can thus sample and record the wearer'sheartbeat, which the wearable device then transmits to the EMS asemergency data. In this example, after receiving the emergency alert andthe emergency data including the heartbeat data, the EMS recognizes thearrhythmia captured by the heartbeat data and determines the heartproblems dispatch card (dispatch card #19 on the table depicted by FIG.23A) to be the appropriate dispatch card for the emergency.

In some embodiments, the EMS determines or selects the dispatch cardappropriate for a particular emergency based on input from ESP personnel(e.g., a PSAP call taker or dispatcher). For example, in someembodiments, when a person dials an emergency number (e.g., 9-1-1 in theUnited States) from a communication device (e.g., a mobile phone), anemergency alert is concurrently transmitted to the EMS as thecommunication device establishes an emergency call with a public safetyanswering point (PSAP). A call taker at the PSAP then answers theemergency call and begins responding the emergency through an ESP (PSAP)device. The EMS is communicatively coupled to the ESP device anddetects, manually or automatically, that the ESP device is being used torespond to the emergency associated with the emergency alert. Forexample, in some embodiments, when the ESP device receives an emergencycall, the ESP device subsequently and automatically transmits acommunication to the EMS that includes an identifier of the emergencycall. For example, in some embodiments, in response to receiving anemergency call, the ESP device automatically sends a request foremergency information regarding the emergency call to the EMS. Therequest for emergency information contains the phone number (e.g., theidentifier of the emergency call) from which the emergency call wasdialed, which the EMS can then use to identify emergency informationpertinent to the emergency call. In some embodiments, the request foremergency information is an HTTP GET request. In another example, insome embodiments, when a call taker at a PSAP answers an emergency call,the call taker can manually submit an identifier of the emergency callto the EMS, such as through a computer aided dispatch (CAD) systeminstalled on the ESP device and communicatively coupled to the EMS orthrough a web application provided by the EMS and running on the ESPdevice. Once the EMS has detected that the ESP device is being used torespond to the emergency associated with the emergency alert, the EMScan then prompt the call taker to select a dispatch card appropriate forthe emergency. In some instances, the call taker may be well suited toselect the dispatch card most appropriate for the emergency, as the calltaker is often able to qualitatively gather relevant informationregarding the emergency while verbally speaking with the caller. Thecall taker can use this information to make an informed decision onwhich dispatch card will be the most appropriate for the emergency. Insome embodiments, the EMS prompts the call taker to select a dispatchcard appropriate for the emergency through a web application provided bythe EMS and running on the ESP device. In some embodiments, the EMSprompts the call taker to select the dispatch card through a CAD systeminstalled on the ESP device. In some embodiments, when the EMS promptsthe call taker to select a dispatch card, the EMS presents a full set ofdispatch cards (e.g., the entire set of 33 dispatch cards from the setof dispatch cards represented in FIG. 23) to the call taker. In someembodiments, when the EMS prompts the call taker to select a dispatchcard, the EMS presents a limited set of dispatch cards for the calltaker to choose from. For example, referring again to the arrhythmiaexample described above, based on the irregular heartbeat data receivedfrom the wearable device, the EMS can determine that the emergency ismost likely a heart-related problem and exclude non-heart-relateddispatch cards (e.g., dispatch card #25, “psychiatric/abnormalbehavior/suicide attempt”) from the limited set of dispatch cardspresented to the call taker. In some embodiments, when the EMS prompts acall taker at an ESP to select a dispatch card appropriate for anemergency, an incident is created within the ESP system corresponding tothe emergency.

In some embodiments, the EMS determines or selects the dispatch cardappropriate for a particular emergency based on input from the user thatgenerated the emergency alert. For example, in some embodiments, when anemergency alert is generated by an electronic device (such as asmartphone, wearable, or IoT device), the EMS can initiate an autonomouscommunication session with the electronic device (as described abovewith respect to FIGS. 3 & 4) or present an emergency assistantapplication through an interface of the electronic device (as describedabove with respect to FIGS. 11 & 12), through which the EMS can receiveinput from a user of the electronic device. Through the autonomouscommunication session or the emergency assistant application, the EMScan ask a user of the electronic device questions regarding the natureof their emergency. The EMS can then determine a dispatch cardappropriate for the emergency based on answers received from the user.For example, in some embodiments, if the EMS receives an emergency alertgenerated by a wearable device and including heartbeat data that showsthat the wearer of the wearable device is experiencing an irregularheartbeat (such as in the arrhythmia example described above), the EMSpresents an emergency assistant application through a display on thewearable device and asks the wearer if they believe they areexperiencing a heart problems or not. If the wearer answers indicatingthat they do believe they are experience a heart problem, the EMS canthen determine that a heart problems dispatch card (e.g., dispatch card#19 in FIG. 23) is the dispatch card most appropriate for the emergencyassociated with the emergency alert.

Once a dispatch card appropriate for a particular emergency has beendetermined by the EMS, the EMS then uses the emergency data associatedwith the emergency alert to answer questions on the dispatch card andgenerates a dispatch recommendation for the emergency based on theanswers to the questions on the dispatch card. In some embodiments, theEMS uses emergency data to answer each of the questions on a dispatchcard determined for an emergency. For example, referring to the Burns(Scalds)/Explosion dispatch card depicted in FIG. 22, if the EMSreceives an emergency alert and detects a fire alarm from a buildingassociated with the emergency alert, the EMS can answer question #1 inthe affirmative. In the same example, if the EMS receives sensor datafrom a smoke detector or video camera in the building indicating that afire is still burning within the building, the EMS can answer question#2 in the affirmative. Or, for example, a man suffers a burn and calls9-1-1 (thereby activating an emergency alert that is detected by theEMS). The man subsequently faints, and his fall is detected by hissmartwatch. The smartwatch then prompts the man to press a confirmationbutton on the smartwatch if he is okay, but the man does not press theconfirmation button, indicating that he has fallen unconscious. In thisexample, the smartwatch can transmit the fall detection data to the EMS,which can then use the fall detection data to answer question #5 in thenegative.

In some embodiments, the EMS uses emergency data to answer a subset ofthe questions on a dispatch card determined for an emergency. Forexample, after the EMS receives an emergency alert regarding anemergency and determines that the Burns (Scalds)/Explosions dispatchcard (as depicted in FIG. 19) is the most appropriate dispatch card forthe emergency, the EMS gathers emergency data associated with theemergency alert. In this example, the emergency data types pertinent tothe Burns (Scalds)/Explosions dispatch card (#7 in the table depicted byFIG. 23) are medical emergency data types D (fall detection) and E(breathing); home emergency data types J (smoke), K (building), and M(building hazards); and R (real-time multimedia). In this example, ifthe EMS is able to access emergency data for all of the pertinentemergency data types, the EMS may be able to instantly and automaticallyanswer all seven of the questions on the dispatch card. For example, theEMS may be able to answer question #1 (Is this a building fire?) withemergency data type K (building); question #2 with emergency data type J(smoke); questions #3, 4 and 7 with emergency data type R (real-timemultimedia); question #5 with emergency data type D (fall detection);and question #6 with emergency data type E (breathing). In anotherexample, if the EMS is only able to access emergency data for pertinentemergency data types D, E, and J, the EMS may only be able to answerquestions #2, 5, and 6.

After answering one or more questions on a dispatch card using emergencydata, the EMS can generate a dispatch recommendation based at least inpart on the one or more questioned answered using the emergency data.For example, in some embodiments, a dispatch card contains one or moredispatch options to be selected based on the answers to the one or morequestions contained by the dispatch card, as described above withrespect to FIG. 22. Once the EMS has answered one or more questions on adispatch card using emergency data, the EMS can cross check the answeredquestions with the dispatch options on the dispatch card. For example,the Burns (Scalds)/Explosion dispatch card depicted in FIG. 22 includesfour dispatch options, A-D. During an emergency for which the Burns(Scalds)/Explosion dispatch card is determined to be the mostappropriate dispatch card, if the EMS gathers emergency data associatedwith the emergency that indicates that a building fire has ignited, theEMS can generate a dispatch recommendation for the emergency based ondispatch option C. If the EMS gathers emergency data associated with theemergency that indicates that a burn victim is unconscious, the EMS cangenerate a dispatch recommendation for the emergency based on dispatchoption D. Or, for example, if the EMS gathers emergency data associatedwith the emergency that indicates that a building fire has ignited andthat a burn victim is unconscious, the EMS can generate a dispatchrecommendation based on dispatch recommendations C and D. For example,is dispatch option C specifies two fire trucks and two basic life safetyambulances and dispatch option D specifies one advanced life safetyambulance, the EMS can combine both to generate a dispatchrecommendation including two fire trucks, two basic life safetyambulances, and an advanced life safety ambulance. As described abovewith respect to FIG. 22, in some embodiments, a dispatch recommendationincludes at least one type of emergency response unit and at least onenumber of the at least one type of emergency response unit. In someembodiments, the EMS identifies a location of an emergency and generatesa dispatch recommendation for the emergency based at least in part on adispatch option and the location of the emergency. In some embodiments,the emergency management system accesses a responder informationdatabase, identifies one or more emergency service providers in thevicinity of the location of the emergency, and determines the types,capabilities, or availabilities of emergency response units from the oneor more emergency service providers. In some embodiments, the dispatchrecommendation includes directions from one or more emergency serviceproviders to the location of the emergency, as depicted by FIG. 21.

FIG. 24 depicts an embodiment of an emergency report 2484 (also referredto as an “incident report”) in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In some embodiments, the emergency management systemgenerates an emergency report 2484 for an emergency, as depicted by FIG.24. In some embodiments, the emergency report 2484 includes a nature ofthe emergency, a severity index for the emergency, and a dispatchrecommendation for the emergency. In some embodiments, the emergencyreport 2484 includes a location of the emergency. In some embodiments,the emergency report 2484 includes a dispatch recommendation and alocation of the emergency. In some embodiments, the emergency report2484 includes a transcription of emergency data associated with anemergency alert generated for the emergency. In some embodiments, theemergency report 2484 includes a data and time of when the emergencyalert was received. In some embodiments, the emergency management systemreceives a notification when an emergency responder is dispatched to theemergency and when the emergency responder arrives at the emergency, andthe emergency report 2484 includes a first date and time of when theemergency responder was dispatched to the emergency and a second dateand time of when the emergency responder arrived at the emergency. Insome embodiments, an emergency report 2484 is transmitted to anemergency service provider that responded to the associated emergencyafter the emergency report is generated. In some embodiments, after anemergency report is transmitted to an ESP, the emergency report isuploaded into the ESP system at the ESP (such as into a CAD systemincluded in the ESP system).

In some embodiments, some or all of emergency data associated with anemergency alert and gathered by the emergency management system istransmitted to an emergency service provider. For example, in someembodiments, the emergency management system can transmit multimedia(e.g., audio or video) associated with the emergency alert to anemergency service provider. In some embodiments, if the EMS receives avideo stream from a smart camera, the EMS can direct the video streamdirectly to an endpoint of the ESP system. Alternatively, the EMS canprovide the ESP with a weblink to a domain hosting the video stream. Insome embodiments, the EMS transmits data or multimedia received from anelectronic device indirectly to an ESP (e.g., the EMS consumes the dataor multimedia before relaying the data or multimedia to the ESP). Forexample, if the EMS can receive a video stream from a smart camera to anendpoint of the EMS and then transmit the video stream from the EMS toan endpoint of the ESP system. Alternatively, the EMS can generate avideo stream from a smart camera by continuously querying the smartcamera for a still image (e.g., two still images per second) andpatching the images together to form a video stream after the stillimages are received by the EMS. The EMS can then transmit the patchedtogether video stream to the ESP. In some embodiments, the emergencymanagement system summarizes emergency data associated with theemergency alert into a summarization, such as a text summary. Forexample, in some embodiments, the emergency management system cansummarize audio or video associated with the emergency alert, such as byanalyzing the audio or video and creating a description of the audio orvideo. In some embodiments, along with a description of the emergencydata, a summarization can include information such as emergency datatype (e.g., media type), the type of device from which the emergencydata was captured, location, and timestamp. After creating asummarization of emergency data associated with the emergency alert, theemergency management system can then transmit the summarization to anemergency service provider.

Machine Learning Algorithms

In some embodiments, the systems, methods, and media described hereinuse one or more algorithms analyzing emergency data. In someembodiments, machine learning algorithms are used for trainingprediction models and/or making predictions such as predicting adispatch category based on available emergency data. In someembodiments, the emergency data comprises social media data. In someembodiments, social media data is screened or filtered to obtainrelevant emergency data. In some embodiments, machine learningalgorithms are used for training models for generating questions orresponses to questions as part of an autonomous chat session with auser. In some embodiments, a machine learning model is trained toevaluate message(s) from a user and generate an output indicative of aresponse or communication or type of response or communication to theuser. As an illustrative example, a user message requesting help andstating there is a fire may be processed by the model to generate anoutput corresponding to a response that the fire department is on theway. In some instances, machine learning methods are applied to thegeneration of such models.

In some embodiments, a machine learning algorithm uses a supervisedlearning approach. In supervised learning, the algorithm generates afunction from labeled training data. Each training example is a pairconsisting of an input object and a desired output value. In someembodiments, an optimal scenario allows for the algorithm to correctlydetermine the class labels for unseen instances. In some embodiments, asupervised learning algorithm requires the user to determine one or morecontrol parameters. These parameters are optionally adjusted byoptimizing performance on a subset, called a validation set, of thetraining set. After parameter adjustment and learning, the performanceof the resulting function is optionally measured on a test set that isseparate from the training set. Regression methods are commonly used insupervised learning. Accordingly, supervised learning allows for a modelor classifier to be generated or trained with training data in which theexpected output is known such as when the emergency category for pastemergency events or alerts have been confirmed.

In some embodiments, a machine learning algorithm uses an unsupervisedlearning approach. In unsupervised learning, the algorithm generates afunction to describe hidden structures from unlabeled data (e.g., aclassification or categorization is not included in the observations).Since the examples given to the learner are unlabeled, there is noevaluation of the accuracy of the structure that is output by therelevant algorithm. Approaches to unsupervised learning include:clustering, anomaly detection, and neural networks.

In some embodiments, a machine learning algorithm learns in batchesbased on the training dataset and other inputs for that batch. In otherembodiments, the machine learning algorithm performs on-line learningwhere the weights and error calculations are constantly updated.

In some embodiments, a machine learning algorithm is applied to new orupdated emergency data to be re-trained to generate a new predictionmodel. In some embodiments, a machine learning algorithm or model isre-trained periodically. In some embodiments, a machine learningalgorithm or model is re-trained non-periodically. In some embodiments,a machine learning algorithm or model is re-trained at least once a day,a week, a month, or a year or more. In some embodiments, a machinelearning algorithm or model is re-trained at least once every 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, or 30 days or more.

In some instances, machine learning methods are applied to select, froma plurality of models generated, one or more particular models that aremore applicable to certain attributes. In some embodiments, differentmodels are generated depending on the distinct sets of attributesobtained for various communications.

In some embodiments, the classifier or trained algorithm of the presentdisclosure comprises one feature space. In some cases, the classifiercomprises two or more feature spaces. In some embodiments, the two ormore feature spaces are distinct from one another. In variousembodiments, each feature space comprise types of attributes associatedwith an emergency alert or communication such as the location, useridentity, user demographic information (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity,etc.), and other types of relevant emergency information. In someembodiments, the accuracy of the classification or prediction isimproved by combining two or more feature spaces in a classifier insteadof using a single feature space. The attributes generally make up theinput features of the feature space and are labeled to indicate theclassification of each communication for the given set of input featurescorresponding to that communication.

In some embodiments, an algorithm utilizes a predictive model such as aneural network, a decision tree, a support vector machine, or otherapplicable model. Using the training data, an algorithm is able to forma classifier for generating a classification or prediction according torelevant features. The features selected for classification can beclassified using a variety of viable methods. In some embodiments, thetrained algorithm comprises a machine learning algorithm. In someembodiments, the machine learning algorithm is selected from at leastone of a supervised, semi-supervised and unsupervised learning, such as,for example, a support vector machine (SVM), a Naïve Bayesclassification, a random forest, an artificial neural network, adecision tree, a K-means, learning vector quantization (LVQ), regressionalgorithm (e.g., linear, logistic, multivariate), association rulelearning, deep learning, dimensionality reduction and ensemble selectionalgorithms. In some embodiments, the machine learning algorithm is asupport vector machine (SVM), a Naïve Bayes classification, a randomforest, or an artificial neural network. Machine learning techniquesinclude bagging procedures, boosting procedures, random forestalgorithms, and combinations thereof.

In some embodiments, a machine learning algorithm such as a classifieris tested using data that was not used for training to evaluate itspredictive ability. In some embodiments, the predictive ability of theclassifier is evaluated using one or more metrics. These metrics includeaccuracy, specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value, negativepredictive value, which are determined for a classifier by testing itagainst a set of independent cases (e.g., communications). In someinstances, an algorithm has an accuracy of at least about 75%, 80%, 85%,90%, 95% or more, including increments therein, for at least about 50,60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190, or 200independent cases, including increments therein. In some instances, analgorithm has a specificity of at least about 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% ormore, including increments therein, for at least about 50, 60, 70, 80,90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190, or 200 independentcases, including increments therein. In some instances, an algorithm hasa sensitivity of at least about 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% or more,including increments therein, for at least about 50, 60, 70, 80, 90,100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190, or 200 independentcases, including increments therein. In some instances, an algorithm hasa positive predictive value of at least about 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% ormore, including increments therein, for at least about 50, 60, 70, 80,90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190, or 200 independentcases, including increments therein. In some instances an algorithm hasa negative predictive value of at least about 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% ormore, including increments therein, for at least about 50, 60, 70, 80,90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190, or 200 independentcases, including increments therein.

In some embodiments, the emergency data and/or communications (e.g.,automated chat messages) undergoes natural language processing using oneor more machine learning algorithms. In some embodiments, the one ormore machine learning algorithms utilize word embeddings that map wordsor phrases to vectors of real numbers. In some embodiments, theembeddings serve as the input into the machine learning model. In someembodiments, the mapping is generated by a neural network. In someembodiments, a machine learning algorithm is applied to parse the textobtained from an available source such as the autonomous chat session, asocial media post or message, or a message received from the user (e.g.,text message or extracted text from a video or audio recording/streamingby the user). In some embodiments, a machine learning algorithm isapplied to segment words into morphemes and identify the class of themorphemes. In some embodiments, a machine learning algorithm is appliedto identify and/or tag the part of speech for the words in themultimedia content (e.g., tagging a word as a noun, verb, adjective, oradverb). In some embodiments, the application applies at least onemachine learning algorithm to emergency communications such as alerts,messages, requests, or chat session information to determine anemergency type (e.g., injury or accident, medical problem, shooting,violent crime, robbery, tornado, or fire) and/or emergency level (e.g.,safe, low, medium, high). In some embodiments, the algorithm determinesan appropriate emergency dispatch center based on the emergency data.For example, training data sets comprising emergency locations andactual emergency response times for specific dispatch centers and/orfirst responders. For example, an actual emergency response time may becalculated based on a first time when the emergency alert orcommunication was sent and/or received or when the first responder(s)was assigned and/or contacted regarding an emergency and a second timewhen the responder(s) reached the victim or emergency location.Accordingly, machine learning can train models that accept data inputssuch as emergency location and dispatch center and/or first responder(s)(e.g., a particular police or fire station or hospital), and generate anoutput indicating an estimated response time. In some embodiments, thetraining data and/or data inputs include additional information that caninfluence response time such as time of the emergency and/or level oftraffic congestion (e.g., near the emergency location, the responderlocation, or a calculated route connecting the emergency and responderlocations).

Certain Terminologies

Unless otherwise defined, all technical terms used herein have the samemeaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art towhich this invention belongs. As used in this specification and theappended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include pluralreferences unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Any referenceto “or” herein is intended to encompass “and/or” unless otherwisestated.

As used herein, a “device” or “electronic device” is a digitalprocessing device designed with one or more functionality, for example,a communication device or sensor device. A “communication device” refersto a communication device with a communication component, which willallow it to send and receive information over a wireless channel, awired channel, or any combination thereof (e.g., sending/receivinginformation over the Internet). Examples of electronic devices include amobile phone (e.g., a smartphone), a laptop, a desktop, a tablet, aradio (e.g., a two-way radio), and a vehicular communication system. Insome embodiments, an electronic device includes a car security system(e.g., OnStar®), a home security system, or a home control system (e.g.,a networked control system for providing network controlled and/or smarttemperature control such as a Wi-Fi smart thermostat, lighting,entertainment, and/or door control, such as Nest®). In some embodiments,a triggering device is an Internet of Things (IoT) device. In someembodiments, the triggering device is a sensor for sensing environmentalor health indicators. In some embodiments, the sensor may include asensing component and a communication component. In some embodiments,the electronic device is a sensor in a sensor network or a device thatcontrols a sensor network.

In some embodiments, an electronic device is a wearable device (e.g., acommunication device worn by a user). In some embodiments, an electronicdevice (e.g., a wearable device) comprises one or more sensors. As usedherein, a “mobile wireless device” refers to a device that is portableand communicates wirelessly. In some embodiments, a user wears orcarries the mobile wireless device on the user's person or in the user'svehicle. Examples of mobile wireless devices include mobile or cellularphones, wearable devices (e.g., smart watch, fitness tracker, wearablesensor, smart glasses, etc.).

As used herein, an “associated device” refers to an electronic devicethat is associated with another electronic device. For example, a usermay be using several communication devices such as a mobile phone, awearable, a home security system, a car computer. The user may haveregistered these devices with his or her account and linked thesedevices with a user name, user number(s), email address(es), home orother physical address(es). In some embodiments, associated devices mayinclude communication devices of a second user who is associated withuser, e.g., a husband and wife, a father and son, a patient and doctor,friends, work colleagues, etc. In some cases, the user may have addedthe second user as an emergency contact, a member of a group, etc. Insome cases, user may have agreed to share location and other data withthe second user. In some embodiments, the second user may be someone whois frequently contacted by the user and the communication deviceidentifies the second user from the “Recently called” or “Frequentlycalled” list. In some embodiments, associated devices may be devicesthat are proximal or near-by to an electronic device such as obtainedthrough a Wi-Fi scan. In some embodiments, an associated device isproximal to the triggering device when the location of the associateddevice is within 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 80,90, 100, 200, 300, 400, or 500 meters of the location of the triggeringdevice.

As used herein, the “list of associated devices” refers to a list ofelectronic devices that are associated with a user or another electronicdevice (e.g., a second resident in a smart home). The list of associateddevices may be listed by user name, phone number, email address,physical address, coordinates etc. The device entry in the list mayinclude phone number, email address, physical address, coordinates,BSSID, SSID or MAC address. The list may be user defined or generated bythe device or the EMS.

As used herein, an “emergency alert” refers to a communication relatingto an emergency or non-emergency situation. In some embodiments, anemergency alert is an emergency request for assistance (e.g., therequest is associated with an emergency situation). In some embodiments,an emergency alert comprises an emergency indication. In furtherembodiments, an emergency indication is selected from one or more of thegroup consisting of traffic accident, police emergency, medicalemergency, and fire emergency. In some embodiments, an emergency alertis associated with a non-emergency situation (e.g., request for a towtruck after car breaks down). In some embodiments, an emergency alert isassociated with a device sending the alert. In other embodiments, anemergency alert is associated with a device not sending the alert (e.g.,a proxy request on behalf of a second device and/or a member device in agroup of devices). As used herein, an emergency alert is “associated”with a device or user when the emergency alert relates to an emergencyor non-emergency situation involving the device or user. In someembodiments, an emergency alert comprises data associated with a device(or user thereof). In some embodiments, an emergency alert comprisesdata associated with an electronic device sending the alert or anotherdevice. For example, in some embodiments, an emergency alert comprisesdata associated with a device, wherein the data set comprises currentand/or past location data. In another example, the data set comprisescurrent and/or past health data associated with the user of anelectronic device. In other embodiments, an emergency alert is sentand/or received separately from data associated with a device.

As used herein, a “request for assistance” refers to a request ormessage sent to a recipient asking for help. In some embodiments, arequest for assistance is an emergency request for assistance (e.g., therequest is associated with an emergency situation) such as, for example,an emergency alert. In some embodiments, an emergency alert comprises arequest for assistance. In some embodiments, a request for assistance isassociated with an emergency situation. In some embodiments, a requestfor assistance comprises an emergency indication. In furtherembodiments, an emergency indication is selected from one or more of thegroup consisting of traffic accident, police emergency, medicalemergency, and fire emergency. In some embodiments, a request forassistance is associated with a non-emergency situation (e.g., requestfor a tow truck after car breaks down). In some embodiments, a requestfor assistance is associated with a device sending the request. In otherembodiments, a request for assistance is associated with a device notsending the request (e.g., a proxy request on behalf of a second deviceand/or a member device in a group of devices). As used herein, a requestis “associated” with a device or user when the request relates to anemergency or non-emergency situation involving the device or user. Insome embodiments, a request comprises data associated with a device (oruser thereof). In some embodiments, a request comprises a data setassociated with a device. For example, in some embodiments, a requestcomprises a data set associated with a device, wherein the data setcomprises current location data. In other embodiments, a request forassistance is sent and/or received separately from data associated witha device. For example, in some embodiments, a request is sent first, andthe recipient subsequently queries the device that sent the request fordata or a data set associated with the emergency and/or device or userinvolved in the emergency. Alternatively, in some embodiments, a requestis sent first, and the recipient subsequently queries the deviceassociated with the emergency for data or a data set associated with theemergency and/or device or user involved in the emergency.

As used herein, a “first responder” refers to any person or personsresponsible for addressing an emergency situation. In some embodiments,a first responder refers to government personnel responsible foraddressing an emergency situation. In some embodiments, a firstresponder is responsible for a particular jurisdiction (e.g., amunicipality, a township, a county, etc.). In some embodiments, a firstresponder is assigned to an emergency by an emergency dispatch center.In some embodiments, a first responder responds to a request foremergency assistance placed by a user via a user communication device.In some embodiments, a first responder includes one or more firefighters, police officers, emergency medical personnel, communityvolunteers, private security, security personnel at a university, orother persons employed to protect and serve the public and/or certainsubsets of the population.

As used herein, an “emergency service provider” (ESP) is a public orprivate organization or institution responsible for providing emergencyservices. For example, in some embodiments, an EDC (e.g., a publicsafety answering point (PSAP)), a fire department, a police department,and a hospital may all be considered emergency service providers. Insome embodiments, an emergency responder is a member of an ESP. In someembodiments, an ESP personnel is a person who works at an ESP. Forexample, an ESP personnel may be a call-taker at a PSAP or a firstresponder at a fire department.

As used herein, a “recipient” refers to one or more persons, services,or systems that receive a request for assistance (e.g., an emergencyalert). The recipient varies depending on the type of request. In someembodiments, a recipient is an emergency service. In some embodiments, arecipient is an emergency service when the request for assistancepertains to an emergency (e.g., a tier 2 emergency). In someembodiments, a recipient is an emergency management system. In someembodiments, a recipient is an emergency dispatch center. In someembodiments, a recipient is an emergency dispatch center, wherein therequest is first routed through an emergency management system (e.g.,request is sent to the EMS, but ultimately is sent to an EDC). In someembodiments, a recipient is a first responder (e.g., a communicationdevice of a first responder). In some embodiments, a recipient is anon-emergency service or personnel, for example, a relative or friend.In such situations, a user of a communication device (or member deviceor second device) does not require emergency assistance, but does needhelp. As an example, a user of a member device in a group of devices isa child who is lost in a theme park. The parent of the child has acommunication device in the same group of devices as the child's memberdevice. The parent uses the communication device to send a request forassistance on behalf of the child's member device to theme park securityguards who are closer to the child than the parent. Security is thenable to pick up the child quickly using the data set associated with themember device, which they are given authorization to access by theparent's communication device.

As used herein, a “user” refers to one or more person or personsassociated with a device (e.g., communication device, member device,second device, device of a first responder, etc.). In some embodiments,a user utilizes a device to place a request for assistance. In someembodiments, user refers to one or more persons who are paid subscribersof a network access service, for example, cellular service subscribers.In some embodiments, a user refers to anyone who gains access to anetwork via a router, for example, a Wi-Fi router, and is not a paidsubscriber of any access service. In some embodiments, a deviceassociated with a user is a device carried or worn on the person of theuser (e.g., a phone or wearable device). In some embodiments, a deviceassociated with a user is not carried or worn on the person of the user(e.g., a home security sensor or camera installed in the home of theuser, a vehicle tracking system installed in a vehicle of the user,etc.).

As used herein, “data” refers to a collection of information about oneor more entities (e.g., user of a user communication device) and/or anenvironment that pertains to characteristics of the one or moreentities. In some embodiments, an entity is a person. In someembodiments, an entity is a thing (e.g., a house). For example, in someembodiments, data comprises sensor data from home sensors associatedwith a house. In this example, the data is also associated with one ormore persons (e.g., the homeowner(s) and/or inhabitant(s)). In someembodiments, data refers to meta-data. In some embodiments, datacomprises health information about the user of a communication device.In some embodiments, data comprises information about the surroundingenvironment of the user of the user communication device (e.g.,surrounding temperature, location, elevation, barometric pressure,ambient noise level, ambient light level, surrounding geography, etc.).In some embodiments, data comprises information about other users thatis pre-stored in a device or in a database (e.g., a database within agroup of devices who are related to the user of the user communicationdevice as predefined by the user). In some embodiments, the data setcomprises information from two or more users of user communicationdevices, wherein each user is affected by the current emergencysituation. As an example, two unrelated users are involved in avehicular collision, and each user sends a separate emergency request(for traffic accident) using his/her communication device. In thisexample, the separate emergency requests are associated (e.g., by anemergency management system and/or emergency dispatch center) with thesame emergency based on the proximity of time, location, and emergencyindication of the emergency requests. As a result, the data set for thisaccident comprises information from both user communication devices. Inthis example, the data set comprises location information from bothdevices (e.g., GPS coordinates), biosensor data for one or both devices(e.g., biosensor data such as heart rate and blood pressure can beimportant in case of injury), and information about the vehicle drivenby each user (e.g., make, model, and year of manufacture informationstored on the device). In some embodiments, data comprises current data.In further embodiments, current data comprises information that is equalto or less than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16,17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50,55, or 60 minutes old. In further embodiments, current data comprisesinformation that equal to or less than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, or 24 hours old. Insome embodiments, data comprises historical data. In furtherembodiments, historical data comprises information that is equal to ormore than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, or60 minutes old. In further embodiments, historical data comprisesinformation that equal to or more than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, or 24 hours old. Insome embodiments, the age of information is calculated from the date theinformation is first collected (e.g., when a sensor first detects asensed parameter such as, for example, heart rate).

As used herein, “health data” refers to medical information associatedwith a user of a device. In some embodiments, health data comprisesmedical history such as, for example, past illnesses, surgery, foodand/or drug allergies, diseases, disorders, medical diagnosticinformation (e.g., genetic profile screen), or any combination thereof.In some embodiments, health data comprises family medical history (e.g.,family history of breast cancer). In some embodiments, health datacomprises current health information such as, for example, currentsymptoms, current medications, and/or current illnesses or diseases. Insome embodiments, health data comprises user age, height, weight, bloodtype, and/or other biometrics. In some embodiments, medical historycomprises medical information that is equal to or more than 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,or 24 hours old. In some embodiments, medical history comprises medicalinformation that is equal to or more than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28,29, or 30 days old. In some embodiments, current health informationcomprises information that is equal to or less than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, or 24hours old. In some embodiments, current health information comprisesmedical information that is equal to or less than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25,26, 27, 28, 29, or 30 days old.

As used herein, “user data” refers to general information associatedwith a user of a device. In some embodiments, user data comprises useridentity, user name, height, weight, eye color, hair color, ethnicity,national origin, religion, language(s) spoken, vision (e.g., whetheruser needs corrective lenses), home address, work address, occupation,family information, user contact information, emergency contactinformation, social security number, alien registration number, driver'slicense number, vehicle VIN, organ donor (e.g., whether user is an organdonor), or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, user data isobtained via user input.

As used herein, “sensor data” refers to information obtained or providedby one or more sensors. In some instances, a sensor is associated with adevice (e.g., user has a communication device with a data link viaBluetooth with a wearable sensor, such as, for example, a heart ratemonitor or a pedometer). Accordingly, in some embodiments, the deviceobtains sensor data from the sensor (e.g., heart rate from the heartrate monitor or distance traveled from the pedometer). In someinstances, the sensor data is relevant to an emergency situation (e.g.,heart rate during a cardiac emergency event). In some embodiments, asensor and/or sensor device comprises an acoustic sensor, abreathalyzer, a carbon dioxide sensor, a carbon monoxide sensor, aninfrared sensor, an oxygen sensor, an ozone monitor, a pH sensor, asmoke detector, a current sensor (e.g., detects electric current in awire), a magnetometer, a metal detector, a radio direction finder, avoltage detector, an air flow meter, an anemometer, a flow sensor, a gasmeter, a water meter, a Geiger counter, an altimeter, an air speedindicator, a depth gauge, a gyroscope, a compass, an odometer, a shockdetector (e.g., on a football helmet to measure impact), a barometer, apressure gauge, a thermometer, a proximity sensor, a motion detector(e.g., in a home security system), an occupancy sensor, or anycombination thereof, and in some embodiments, sensor data comprisesinformation obtained from any of the preceding sensors. In someembodiments, one or more sensors are physically separate from a userdevice. In further embodiments, the one or more sensors authorize theuser device to obtain sensor data. In further embodiments, the one ormore sensors provide or send sensor data to the user deviceautonomously. In some embodiments, the user device and the one or moresensors belong to the same group of devices, wherein member devices areauthorized to share data. In some embodiments, a user device comprisesone or more sensors (e.g., user device is a wearable device having asensor or sensing component).

As used herein, “communication link” refers to a communication pathwayfrom a device (e.g., communication device) to another device or to anintermediate device (e.g., a router) on a network. In some embodiments,the communication device establishes a communication link with anotherdevice or an intermediate device to transfer information (e.g., alocation of the device) or to obtain information from a recipient suchas, for example, location of a first responder assigned to a request forassistance associated with the communication device (e.g., device offirst responder). A communication link refers to the point-to-pointcommunication channels, point-to-point and end-to-end data sessions, andthe physical hardware facilitating the communication channel(s) (e.g.,antennas used to communicate/transmit information). In some embodiments,a data session comprises session parameters and the network route takenfrom one device to another device.

As used herein, an “autonomous communication session” is a communicationsession held between a user of an electronic device and an artificialconversational entity (e.g., a chatbot). The artificial conversationalentity can communicate with the user of the electronic device accordingto a predetermined script or completely independently using anyappropriate form of artificial intelligence, such as deep learning ornatural language processing. In some embodiments, a chatbot communicateswith a user of an electronic device by posing questions to the user togather emergency data or information. In some embodiments, the chatbotposes yes-or-no questions to the user of the electronic device. In someembodiments, the chatbot poses multiple choice questions to the user ofthe electronic device. In some embodiments, the chatbot poses freeresponse questions to the user of the electronic device. The autonomouscommunication session may be held using different types of electronicdevices and different interfaces of electronic devices.

As used herein, a “data channel” refers to a communication sessionbetween two devices wherein data packets are exchanged between thedevices. In some embodiments, a data session is setup using exchange ofcertain data packets, also called as “handshake signals,” which are ableto define the capabilities of the data session. For example, in someembodiments, the data session “handshake” provides for the ability totransfer multi-media data, voice data, and other data via the datasession. In some embodiments, the data session is setup without the useof handshake signals, wherein the two devices involved share datapackets according to a predefined protocol (e.g., a previously agreedupon protocol). In some embodiments, the data session is routed throughan EMS, which stores the multi-media, voice, and/or other data from anyof the devices that are part of the data session. In furtherembodiments, the EMS shares the data from the data session with theother device (e.g., device of a first responder). In some embodiments,the EMS manages the data session.

As used herein, a “Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)” refers toa measurement of the power present in a received radio signal. In someembodiments, the RSSI refers to a number assigned to the signal levels(e.g., power level) of packets as detected by a device receiving thepackets from a device sending the packets. For example, an RSSI valuemay be a number within an arbitrary range such as from 0 to 100. In someembodiments, the RSSI refers to the decibel level of the power of thereceived data packets. In other embodiments, the RSSI refers to theactual power, for example measured in mW, as detected by the receiver.In some embodiments, RSSI is replaced with received channel powerindicator (RCPI), which is a measure of the received radio signal powerin a selected channel over the preamble and the entire received frame.

As used herein, “voice or speech recognition software” refers tocomputer programs that can recognize a person's speech to identifytrigger phrases (e.g., iListen, Voice Navigator, Google Now, LilySpeech,etc.). In some embodiments, the software may be able to recognize theidentity of the speaker. As used herein, “voice command” refers to wordsor phrases that a user may use to give command to the triggering device.The trigger phrases may be user-defined or may be from a library ofphrases on the trigger device or at a remote server.

As used herein, “sound detection software” refers to computer programsfor detecting trigger sounds in and around the triggering device. Thetrigger sounds may be user-defined or may be from a library of phraseson the trigger device or at a remote server. The trigger sounds may besounds (alarms, breakage, gunshots, explosion, fire, car crash, etc.) orabsence of sound (e.g., no heartbeat, etc.). For example, a glass breakdetector software may use the microphone in the trigger device tomonitor any noise or vibrations to detect burglaries in a smart home. Ifthe vibrations exceed a baseline, they may be analyzed by the software.The software may analyze frequencies typical of glass shattering andtrigger an emergency alert if the sound is above a trigger threshold. Insome cases, the software may compare detected sounds with glass-breakprofiles analysis and trigger an alert if the amplitude threshold and/orstatistically expressed similarity threshold are breached. In someembodiments, an emergency is detected or triggered when a trigger soundexceeds a threshold. In some embodiments, a trigger sound threshold isabout 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140,150, 160, 170, 180, 190, or 200 decibels. In some embodiments, a triggersound threshold is at least about 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90,95, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190, or 200 decibels.In some embodiments, a trigger sound threshold is no more than about 50,55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160,170, 180, 190, or 200 decibels.

Modern communication devices, for example, smart phones, tabletcomputers, wearable communication devices, smart sensor devices and/orsystems are often equipped with a variety of features for determininglocation information of the communication device using, for example,GPS, or triangulation with cellular phone towers. Modern communicationdevices also often include functionality to store data regarding a userof the communication device, for example, health information about theuser.

In some embodiments, the communication device (or communication moduleof the device) communicates with a recipient through one or more datachannels. In some embodiments, the recipient is an emergency managementsystem. In some embodiments, the EMS routes communications to an EDC. Infurther embodiments, the EMS establishes a first data channel with thecommunication device and a second data channel between the EMS and theEDC, wherein the EMS bridges the first and second data channels toenable the communication device and the EDC to communicate. In someembodiments, the EMS converts data (e.g., data set) from thecommunication device into a format suitable for the EDC (e.g., analog ordigital, audio, SMS, data, etc.) before sending or routing the formatteddata to the EDC. In some embodiments, the EMS routes communications to adevice associated with a first responder. In some embodiments, thecommunication device relays additional communications, information,and/or data sent or shared between member devices in the group ofdevices to the EMS or EDC after a request for assistance has been sent.In further embodiments, the additional information is relayed to the EMSor EDC after the request for assistance has been sent in order toprovide current information that is relevant to the request. Forexample, in some instances, communications between member devicescontain information relevant to the emergency (e.g., information thatthe user of member device who is experiencing a medical emergencysuffers from diabetes). Accordingly, in some embodiments, theinformation is sent autonomously, at request of a user of thecommunication device, or at request of the recipient (e.g., EMS, EDC,first responder, etc.).

The present methods and systems disclose partially or fully integratedsolutions emergency management systems, emergency service providers, andelectronic devices. Previous systems were not integrated and could notprovide secured pathways, user privacy and software compatibilities. Insome embodiments, partial integration with a dispatch center or firstresponder may involve adding the emergency management system as a“trusted link” on their systems or devices. In some embodiments,end-to-end software solutions are beneficial, e.g., for video feed fromsensor to be available to first responders.

Digital Processing Device

In some embodiments, the platforms, media, methods and applicationsdescribed herein include a digital processing device, a processor, oruse of the same. In further embodiments, the digital processing deviceincludes one or more hardware central processing units (CPU) that carryout the device's functions. In still further embodiments, the digitalprocessing device further comprises an operating system configured toperform executable instructions. In some embodiments, the digitalprocessing device is optionally connected a computer network. In furtherembodiments, the digital processing device is optionally connected tothe Internet such that it accesses the World Wide Web. In still furtherembodiments, the digital processing device is optionally connected to acloud computing infrastructure. In other embodiments, the digitalprocessing device is optionally connected to an intranet. In otherembodiments, the digital processing device is optionally connected to adata storage device.

In accordance with the description herein, suitable digital processingdevices include, by way of non-limiting examples, server computers,desktop computers, laptop computers, notebook computers, sub-notebookcomputers, netbook computers, netpad computers, set-top computers,handheld computers, Internet appliances, mobile smartphones, tabletcomputers, personal digital assistants, video game consoles, andvehicles. Those of skill in the art will recognize that many smartphonesare suitable for use in the system described herein. Those of skill inthe art will also recognize that select televisions, video players, anddigital music players with optional computer network connectivity aresuitable for use in the system described herein. Suitable tabletcomputers include those with booklet, slate, and convertibleconfigurations, known to those of skill in the art.

In some embodiments, the digital processing device includes an operatingsystem configured to perform executable instructions. The operatingsystem is, for example, software, including programs and data, whichmanages the device's hardware and provides services for execution ofapplications. Those of skill in the art will recognize that suitableserver operating systems include, by way of non-limiting examples,FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD®, Linux, Apple® Mac OS X Server®, Oracle®Solaris®, Windows Server®, and Novell® NetWare®. Those of skill in theart will recognize that suitable personal computer operating systemsinclude, by way of non-limiting examples, Microsoft® Windows®, Apple®Mac OS X®, UNIX®, and UNIX-like operating systems such as GNU/Linux®. Insome embodiments, the operating system is provided by cloud computing.Those of skill in the art will also recognize that suitable mobile smartphone operating systems include, by way of non-limiting examples, Nokia®Symbian® OS, Apple® iOS®, Research In Motion® BlackBerry OS®, Google®Android®, Microsoft® Windows Phone® OS, Microsoft® Windows Mobile® OS,Linux®, and Palm® WebOS®.

In some embodiments, the device includes a storage and/or memory device.The storage and/or memory device is one or more physical apparatusesused to store data or programs on a temporary or permanent basis. Insome embodiments, the device is volatile memory and requires power tomaintain stored information. In some embodiments, the device isnon-volatile memory and retains stored information when the digitalprocessing device is not powered. In further embodiments, thenon-volatile memory comprises flash memory. In some embodiments, thenon-volatile memory comprises dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). Insome embodiments, the non-volatile memory comprises ferroelectric randomaccess memory (FRAM). In some embodiments, the non-volatile memorycomprises phase-change random access memory (PRAM). In some embodiments,the non-volatile memory comprises magnetoresistive random-access memory(MRAM). In other embodiments, the device is a storage device including,by way of non-limiting examples, CD-ROMs, DVDs, flash memory devices,magnetic disk drives, magnetic tapes drives, optical disk drives, andcloud computing based storage. In further embodiments, the storageand/or memory device is a combination of devices such as those disclosedherein.

In some embodiments, the digital processing device includes a display tosend visual information to a subject. In some embodiments, the displayis a cathode ray tube (CRT). In some embodiments, the display is aliquid crystal display (LCD). In further embodiments, the display is athin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD). In someembodiments, the display is an organic light emitting diode (OLED)display. In various further embodiments, on OLED display is apassive-matrix OLED (PMOLED) or active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display. Insome embodiments, the display is a plasma display. In some embodiments,the display is E-paper or E ink. In other embodiments, the display is avideo projector. In still further embodiments, the display is acombination of devices such as those disclosed herein.

In some embodiments, the digital processing device includes an inputdevice to receive information from a subject. In some embodiments, theinput device is a keyboard. In some embodiments, the input device is apointing device including, by way of non-limiting examples, a mouse,trackball, track pad, joystick, game controller, or stylus. In someembodiments, the input device is a touch screen or a multi-touch screen.In other embodiments, the input device is a microphone to capture voiceor other sound input. In other embodiments, the input device is a videocamera or other sensor to capture motion or visual input. In furtherembodiments, the input device is a Kinect, Leap Motion, or the like. Instill further embodiments, the input device is a combination of devicessuch as those disclosed herein.

Non-Transitory Computer Readable Storage Medium

In some embodiments, the platforms, media, methods and applicationsdescribed herein include one or more non-transitory computer readablestorage media encoded with a program including instructions executableby the operating system of an optionally networked digital processingdevice. In further embodiments, a computer readable storage medium is atangible component of a digital processing device. In still furtherembodiments, a computer readable storage medium is optionally removablefrom a digital processing device. In some embodiments, a computerreadable storage medium includes, by way of non-limiting examples,CD-ROMs, DVDs, flash memory devices, solid state memory, magnetic diskdrives, magnetic tape drives, optical disk drives, cloud computingsystems and services, and the like. In some cases, the program andinstructions are permanently, substantially permanently,semi-permanently, or non-transitorily encoded on the media.

Computer Program

In some embodiments, the platforms, media, methods and applicationsdescribed herein include at least one computer program, or use of thesame. A computer program includes a sequence of instructions, executablein the digital processing device's CPU, written to perform a specifiedtask. Computer readable instructions may be implemented as programmodules, such as functions, objects, Application Programming Interfaces(APIs), data structures, and the like, that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types. In light of the disclosureprovided herein, those of skill in the art will recognize that acomputer program may be written in various versions of variouslanguages.

The functionality of the computer readable instructions may be combinedor distributed as desired in various environments. In some embodiments,a computer program comprises one sequence of instructions. In someembodiments, a computer program comprises a plurality of sequences ofinstructions. In some embodiments, a computer program is provided fromone location. In other embodiments, a computer program is provided froma plurality of locations. In various embodiments, a computer programincludes one or more software modules. In various embodiments, acomputer program includes, in part or in whole, one or more webapplications, one or more mobile applications, one or more standaloneapplications, one or more web browser plug-ins, extensions, add-ins, oradd-ons, or combinations thereof.

Web Application

In some embodiments, a computer program includes a web application. Inlight of the disclosure provided herein, those of skill in the art willrecognize that a web application, in various embodiments, utilizes oneor more software frameworks and one or more database systems. In someembodiments, a web application is created upon a software framework suchas Microsoft® .NET or Ruby on Rails (RoR). In some embodiments, a webapplication utilizes one or more database systems including, by way ofnon-limiting examples, relational, non-relational, object oriented,associative, and XML database systems. In further embodiments, suitablerelational database systems include, by way of non-limiting examples,Microsoft® SQL Server, mySQL™, and Oracle®. Those of skill in the artwill also recognize that a web application, in various embodiments, iswritten in one or more versions of one or more languages. A webapplication may be written in one or more markup languages, presentationdefinition languages, client-side scripting languages, server-sidecoding languages, database query languages, or combinations thereof. Insome embodiments, a web application is written to some extent in amarkup language such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), ExtensibleHypertext Markup Language (XHTML), or eXtensible Markup Language (XML).In some embodiments, a web application is written to some extent in apresentation definition language such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).In some embodiments, a web application is written to some extent in aclient-side scripting language such as Asynchronous Javascript and XML(AJAX), Flash® Actionscript, Javascript, or Silverlight®. In someembodiments, a web application is written to some extent in aserver-side coding language such as Active Server Pages (ASP),ColdFusion®, Perl, Java™, JavaServer Pages (JSP), Hypertext Preprocessor(PHP), Python™, Ruby, Tcl, Smalltalk, WebDNA®, or Groovy. In someembodiments, a web application is written to some extent in a databasequery language such as Structured Query Language (SQL). In someembodiments, a web application integrates enterprise server productssuch as IBM® Lotus Domino®. In some embodiments, a web applicationincludes a media player element. In various further embodiments, a mediaplayer element utilizes one or more of many suitable multimediatechnologies including, by way of non-limiting examples, Adobe® Flash®,HTML 5, Apple® QuickTime®, Microsoft® Silverlight®, Java™, and Unity®.

Mobile Application

In some embodiments, a computer program includes a mobile applicationprovided to a mobile digital processing device. In some embodiments, themobile application is provided to a mobile digital processing device atthe time it is manufactured. In other embodiments, the mobileapplication is provided to a mobile digital processing device via thecomputer network described herein.

In view of the disclosure provided herein, a mobile application iscreated by techniques known to those of skill in the art using hardware,languages, and development environments known to the art. Those of skillin the art will recognize that mobile applications are written inseveral languages. Suitable programming languages include, by way ofnon-limiting examples, C, C++, C #, Objective-C, Java™, Javascript,Pascal, Object Pascal, Python™, Ruby, VB.NET, WML, and XHTML/HTML withor without CSS, or combinations thereof.

Suitable mobile application development environments are available fromseveral sources. Commercially available development environmentsinclude, by way of non-limiting examples, AirplaySDK, alcheMo,Appcelerator®, Celsius, Bedrock, Flash Lite, .NET Compact Framework,Rhomobile, and WorkLight Mobile Platform. Other development environmentsare available without cost including, by way of non-limiting examples,Lazarus, MobiFlex, MoSync, and Phonegap. Also, mobile devicemanufacturers distribute software developer kits including, by way ofnon-limiting examples, iPhone and iPad (iOS) SDK, Android™ SDK,BlackBerry® SDK, BREW SDK, Palm® OS SDK, Symbian SDK, webOS SDK, andWindows® Mobile SDK.

Those of skill in the art will recognize that several commercial forumsare available for distribution of mobile applications including, by wayof non-limiting examples, Apple® App Store, Android™ Market, BlackBerry®App World, App Store for Palm devices, App Catalog for webOS, Windows®Marketplace for Mobile, Ovi Store for Nokia® devices, Samsung® Apps, andNintendo® DSi Shop.

Standalone Application

In some embodiments, a computer program includes a standaloneapplication, which is a program that is run as an independent computerprocess, not an add-on to an existing process, e.g., not a plug-in.Those of skill in the art will recognize that standalone applicationsare often compiled. A compiler is a computer program(s) that transformssource code written in a programming language into binary object codesuch as assembly language or machine code. Suitable compiled programminglanguages include, by way of non-limiting examples, C, C++, Objective-C,COBOL, Delphi, Eiffel, Java™, Lisp, Python™, Visual Basic, and VB .NET,or combinations thereof. Compilation is often performed, at least inpart, to create an executable program. In some embodiments, a computerprogram includes one or more executable complied applications.

Software Modules

In some embodiments, the platforms, media, methods and applicationsdescribed herein include software, server, and/or database modules, oruse of the same. In view of the disclosure provided herein, softwaremodules are created by techniques known to those of skill in the artusing machines, software, and languages known to the art. The softwaremodules disclosed herein are implemented in a multitude of ways. Invarious embodiments, a software module comprises a file, a section ofcode, a programming object, a programming structure, or combinationsthereof. In further various embodiments, a software module comprises aplurality of files, a plurality of sections of code, a plurality ofprogramming objects, a plurality of programming structures, orcombinations thereof. In various embodiments, the one or more softwaremodules comprise, by way of non-limiting examples, a web application, amobile application, and a standalone application. In some embodiments,software modules are in one computer program or application. In otherembodiments, software modules are in more than one computer program orapplication. In some embodiments, software modules are hosted on onemachine. In other embodiments, software modules are hosted on more thanone machine. In further embodiments, software modules are hosted oncloud computing platforms. In some embodiments, software modules arehosted on one or more machines in one location. In other embodiments,software modules are hosted on one or more machines in more than onelocation.

Databases

In some embodiments, the platforms, systems, media, and methodsdisclosed herein include one or more databases, or use of the same. Inview of the disclosure provided herein, those of skill in the art willrecognize that many databases are suitable for storage and retrieval ofbarcode, route, parcel, subject, or network information. In variousembodiments, suitable databases include, by way of non-limitingexamples, relational databases, non-relational databases, objectoriented databases, object databases, entity-relationship modeldatabases, associative databases, and XML databases. In someembodiments, a database is internet-based. In further embodiments, adatabase is web-based. In still further embodiments, a database is cloudcomputing-based. In other embodiments, a database is based on one ormore local computer storage devices.

Web Browser Plug-In

In some embodiments, the computer program includes a web browserplug-in. In computing, a plug-in is one or more software components thatadd specific functionality to a larger software application. Makers ofsoftware applications support plug-ins to enable third-party developersto create abilities which extend an application, to support easilyadding new features, and to reduce the size of an application. Whensupported, plug-ins enable customizing the functionality of a softwareapplication. For example, plug-ins are commonly used in web browsers toplay video, generate interactivity, scan for viruses, and displayparticular file types. Those of skill in the art will be familiar withseveral web browser plug-ins including, Adobe® Flash® Player, Microsoft®Silverlight®, and Apple® QuickTime®. In some embodiments, the toolbarcomprises one or more web browser extensions, add-ins, or add-ons. Insome embodiments, the toolbar comprises one or more explorer bars, toolbands, or desk bands.

In view of the disclosure provided herein, those of skill in the artwill recognize that several plug-in frameworks are available that enabledevelopment of plug-ins in various programming languages, including, byway of non-limiting examples, C++, Delphi, Java™, PHP, Python™, and VB.NET, or combinations thereof.

Web browsers (also called Internet browsers) are software applications,designed for use with network-connected digital processing devices, forretrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on theWorld Wide Web. Suitable web browsers include, by way of non-limitingexamples, Microsoft® Internet Explorer®, Mozilla® Firefox®, Google®Chrome, Apple® Safari®, Opera Software® Opera®, and KDE Konqueror. Insome embodiments, the web browser is a mobile web browser. Mobile webbrowsers (also called microbrowsers, mini-browsers, and wirelessbrowsers) are designed for use on mobile digital processing devicesincluding, by way of non-limiting examples, handheld computers, tabletcomputers, netbook computers, subnotebook computers, smartphones, musicplayers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and handheld video gamesystems. Suitable mobile web browsers include, by way of non-limitingexamples, Google® Android® browser, RIM BlackBerry® Browser, Apple®Safari®, Palm® Blazer, Palm® WebOS® Browser, Mozilla® Firefox® formobile, Microsoft® Internet Explorer® Mobile, Amazon® Kindle® Basic Web,Nokia® Browser, Opera Software® Opera® Mobile, and Sony® PSP™ browser.

EXAMPLES

The following illustrative examples are representative of embodiments ofthe systems, methods, devices, and media described herein and are notmeant to be limiting in any way.

Just In Time, an emergency response company, aids emergency serviceproviders (ESPs; such as public safety answering points (PSAPs) andemergency dispatch centers) by gathering emergency data from a varietyof sources and delivering the data directly to the emergency serviceproviders during emergencies. To this end, Just In Time maintains andprovides an emergency management system (hereinafter, “EMS”) thatreceives and stores data, information, and multimedia (hereinafter,“emergency data”) during emergencies from a plurality of sources, suchas mobile phones and mobile applications, internet of things (IoT)devices, intelligent vehicle systems, and other electronic devices. TheEMS can then deliver helpful and relevant emergency data to ESPs thatcan help the ESPs in responding to emergencies. For example, the EMS canprovide a live streaming video of a fire to the nearest fire department,providing situational awareness that allows the firefighters to arrivemore prepared to address the fire.

However, the EMS can also aid emergency response or provide emergencyassistance in various ways when an emergency service provider (e.g., aPSAP) is preoccupied or otherwise unavailable, as exemplified below.

Example 1—Autonomous Communication Session

Darius Wilde has just graduated from college and is living at home withhis mother in South Florida while he searches for jobs. One day late inthe summer, a category 5 hurricane comes off the coast of Florida anddescends on their city, causing massive flooding that turns theirstreets into small rivers that cars cannot drive through. Darius and hismother did not choose to evacuate and are now trapped within their home.After a day of being trapped inside, Darius' mother trips and falls downthe stairs, severely injuring her arm in the fall. They believe thatDarius' mother has broken her arm, and, unable to drive his mother tothe nearest hospital due to the flooding, Darius calls 9-1-1 on his cellphone.

Unfortunately, Darius' local PSAP is unable to answer Darius' 911 callbecause the city is experiencing many more emergencies than usual due tothe hurricane. There are dozens of 911 calls on hold waiting in linebefore Darius' call. However, the EMS detects an emergency alertcomprising Darius' location (their home address, 6104 Gatorback Lane)generated by Darius' cell phone in response to Darius dialing 9-1-1 andinitiates an autonomous communication session with Darius by sending anemergency response text message to Darius' cell phone while Darius is onhold. The emergency response message is a text message that reads“Hello, this is the 911 chatbot. Are you experiencing an emergency?Reply “Yes” if so, “no” if not.” Darius responds to the emergencyresponse message by texting back a message that reads “Yes.” The EMSimmediately replies with a text message that reads “Is your location6104 Gatorback Lane? Reply “Yes” if so, “no” if not.” Darius replies bytexting back a second “Yes” message. The EMS then replies with a messagethat reads “Please describe the nature of your emergency.” Darius textsback “My mother fell down the stairs and appears to have broken her armbut we are trapped within our house because of the hurricane flooding.”The EMS responds with “Your emergency has been noted and delivered toyour local PSAP. If the nature of your emergency changes or develops,please text us the update here.”

The EMS then shares the location and nature of Darius' emergency withthe local PSAP. The local PSAP is made of aware of the emergency withouthaving to speak directly to Darius. The local PSAP is then able toprioritize Darius' emergency faster than they would have been able to ifthey had to wait to speak to Darius directly. Darius remains on holdwith the local PSAP just in case he is able to get through to a calltaker. Twenty minutes later, however, Darius receives a call from anemergency responder.

A call taker at the local PSAP was responding to an emergency call froma location close to Darius' location when the call taker received anotification regarding Darius' emergency from the EMS. The call takerwas then able recommend that the two emergencies be addressedsimultaneously, if possible, by the same emergency responders. On theirway to respond to the first emergency, an emergency responder calledDarius to let him know that they would be passing by Darius' location ina riverboat after responding to the first emergency to pick up Darius'mother and take her to the nearest hospital.

Example 2—Emergency Assistant

Caroline Smith lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City.Her kitchen and living room are conjoined in the small apartment. In herliving room, Caroline has an Amazon Alexa smart speaker that she uses tocontrol her various smart home products. One day, as she is cuttingonions to prepare a dinner for herself, Caroline brings her left hand toher eyes to wipe away some onion-induced tears and inadvertently getschili pepper flakes in her eye. Instinctively, in response to theburning in her eye, she drops the knife in her right hand. The knifefalls and impales her bare foot.

When it registers that the knife has landed in her foot, Carolinescreams and drops to the floor. Mortified, she yells, “Alexa, call9-1-1!” In response, her smart speaker begins dialing 9-1-1.Simultaneously, the smart speaker sends an emergency alert to the EMS.In response to receiving the emergency alert, the EMS initiates anemergency assistant application on the smart speaker. The smart speakerthen begins audibly asking Caroline questions. First, the smart speakerasks if Caroline's emergency is a fire, medical, or police emergency.Caroline verbally responds and tells the emergency assistant application(via the smart speaker) that she is experiencing a medical emergency.The smart speaker then asks if she is bleeding; then asks if the woundis an abrasion, a laceration, a puncture, or an avulsion; and finallyasks if the blood is dripping, gushing, or pooling. Caroline tells theemergency assistant application that she is bleeding, that it is apuncture wound, and that the blood is gushing.

After verbally receiving the description of Caroline's emergency throughthe smart speaker, the emergency assistant provides a safetyrecommendation that audibly instructs Caroline through the smart speakeron how best to treat the injury until emergency responders are able torespond to her emergency. The EMS also transmits the description ofCaroline's emergency her local PSAP. Just after Caroline finishestending to her wound according to the safety recommendation, her 9-1-1call is picked up by a call taker at the local PSAP. The call taker hasalready received the description of Caroline's emergency from the EMSand is able to simply confirm the details with Caroline beforedispatching an ambulance to Caroline's location.

Example 3—Automatic Emergency Response Coordination

Rufus Black, an architect and real estate developer, has just moved fromGreensboro, N.C. to Anise, Ariz., a new and recently built city. Anise,Ariz. has a number of emergency dispatch centers—three police stations,two fire departments, and two hospitals with emergency rooms—but doesnot have any public safety answering points (PSAPs). Representatives ofthe emergency dispatch centers met previously and decided to adopt thePhoenix, Ariz. dispatch protocols (e.g., what types of emergencyresponse units and how many should be dispatched for different types ofemergencies) for their new city. The representatives of the emergencydispatch centers then submit the Phoenix, Ariz. dispatch protocols tothe EMS. The EMS is communicatively coupled to the dispatch systems ofthe emergency dispatch centers in Anise, Ariz., such that the EMS isconstantly aware of the availability of emergency response units at theemergency dispatch centers.

One day, Rufus is driving on a highway to visit an empty plot of land onthe outskirts of Anise, Ariz. that he and his associates are consideringpurchasing to develop a hotel and casino on. On the way, luggage fallsout of the trunk of a car in front of Rufus. Rufus veers right to avoidrunning into the luggage but is hit by a car in the lane to his right.Rufus' car is impacted at an angle in the center of the right side ofhis car. An intelligent vehicle system installed in Rufus' car isconfigured to log the speed that Rufus was driving and detect the partof Rufus' car that was impacted and the force with which the car wasimpacted. The intelligent vehicle system is also aware that Rufus wasthe only passenger in the car (using pressure sensors installed in theseats). In response to detecting the impact, the intelligent vehiclesystem sends all of this information to the EMS, which uses theinformation to determine the nature and severity of the emergency.

Based on the information—a side impact car accident involving multiplevehicles—the EMS is able to instantly determine that the emergency ismost likely a car accident of medium severity. The EMS then referencesthe dispatch protocols provided by the representatives of the emergencydispatch centers and the availability of emergency response units fromthe seven emergency dispatch centers and generates a dispatchrecommendation for Rufus' car accident based on the determination of caraccident of medium severity. The dispatch recommendation calls for afire truck and two police squad cars from the fire department and policestation nearest to the location of the car accident. The EMS then sendsthe dispatch recommendation to each of the emergency dispatch centers inAnise, Ariz., which can use the dispatch recommendation to instantlyrespond to Rufus' car accident without the involvement of a PSAP.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for facilitating emergencycommunications by an emergency management system, the method comprising:a) identifying a user at risk of an emergency; b) presenting anemergency response prompt at a communication device associated with theuser; c) receiving confirmation of the emergency; d) in response toreceiving confirmation of the emergency, initiating an autonomouscommunication session with the user through the communication device,wherein the autonomous communication session comprises one or moreemergency response questions transmitted to the communication device andone or more user responses to the emergency response questions receivedfrom the communication device; e) extracting emergency information fromthe one or more user responses provided during the autonomouscommunication session; and f) transmitting the emergency information toan emergency service provider (ESP).
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinidentifying the user at risk of the emergency comprises detecting anemergency alert generated by the communication device.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein identifying the user at risk of the emergency comprisesdetecting an emergency alert generated by an electronic deviceassociated with the user and distinct from the communication device. 4.The method of claim 3, wherein the electronic device is an Internet ofThings (IoT) device, a wearable device, or a security monitoring device.5. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the autonomouscommunication session comprises transmitting one or more messagescomprising the one or more emergency response questions to thecommunication device according to a predetermined script.
 6. The methodof claim 5, further comprising adapting the predetermined script duringthe autonomous communication session according to one or more userresponses from the communication device.
 7. The method of claim 5,wherein the emergency information extracted from the autonomouscommunication session comprises answers received from the user inresponse to the emergency response questions.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the emergency information comprises content from one or moremessages received from the user through the autonomous communicationsession.
 9. The method of claim 1: a) wherein the emergency responseprompt comprises a first SMS text message; and b) wherein confirmationof the emergency comprises a second SMS text message received from theuser in response to the first SMS text message.
 10. The method of claim1: a) wherein the emergency response prompt comprises a pushnotification; and b) wherein confirmation of the emergency comprisesselection of the push notification.
 11. The method of claim 1: a)wherein the communication device is an internet of things (IoT) devicecomprising a microphone and a speaker; and b) wherein the autonomouscommunication session is an audio session conducted through themicrophone and speaker of the IoT device.
 12. The method of claim 1,wherein initiating the autonomous communication session with the userthrough the communication device comprises launching a mobileapplication on the communication device, wherein the mobile applicationcomprises a graphical user interface configured to facilitate theautonomous communication session.
 13. The method of claim 12, whereinthe graphical user interface comprises two or more soft buttons for theuser to submit responses to at least one of multiple choice or yes or noquestions during the autonomous communication session.
 14. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: a) obtaining a location of thecommunication device; and b) determining an appropriate ESP to receivethe emergency information based on the location of the communicationdevice.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the emergency informationcomprises a photo or video received from the communication device duringthe autonomous communication session.
 16. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising displaying the emergency information through a graphical userinterface (GUI) of an emergency response application executed on acomputing device at the ESP.
 17. The method of claim 1, whereinidentifying the user at risk of the emergency comprises detecting anemergency response anomaly associated with an emergency alert associatedwith the user.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the userat risk of the emergency comprises: a) detecting a negative status of anemergency alert associated with the emergency; b) presenting an optionto initiate an autonomous communication session for the emergency alertwithin a graphical user interface (GUI) of an emergency responseapplication; and c) detecting selection of the option to initiate anautonomous communication session for the emergency alert.
 19. The methodof claim 1, further comprising providing emergency assistance to theuser, wherein the emergency assistance comprises instructions forresponding to the emergency based at least on the emergency information.20. A method for facilitating emergency communications by an emergencymanagement system, the method comprising: a) detecting a negative statusof an emergency alert transmitted to an emergency service provider(ESP); b) presenting an option to initiate an autonomous communicationsession for the emergency alert within a graphical user interface (GUI)of an emergency response application executed on a computing device atthe ESP; c) detecting selection of the option to initiate an autonomouscommunication session for the emergency alert; d) presenting anemergency response prompt at a communication device associated with theemergency alert; e) receiving confirmation of the emergency responseprompt; f) in response to receiving confirmation of the emergencyresponse prompt, initiating an autonomous communication session with thecommunication device, wherein the autonomous communication sessioncomprises one or more emergency response questions transmitted to thecommunication device and one or more user responses to the emergencyresponse questions received from the communication device; g) extractingemergency information from the one or more user responses providedduring the autonomous communication session; h) transmitting theemergency information to the ESP; and i) displaying the emergencyinformation through the GUI of the emergency response application.